BURKE 

SPEECH  ON 
CONCILIATION 

WITH 

AMERICA 


WARD 


lake 


REVISED  EDITION  WITH  HELPS  TO  STUDY 


SPEECH 

ON 

CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA 

BY 

EDMUND  BURKE 

With  Selections  from 

OTHER  WRITINGS  OF  BURKE,   SPEECHES  BY  PITT  AND 

FOX,   AND  EXTRACTS  FROM  TREVELYAN,   LECKY, 

AND    THE    PARLIAMENTARY    HISTORY 

EDITED  BY 

C.  H.  WARD 

TAFT  SCHOOL,   WATERTOWN,  CONN. 


SCOTT,  FORESMAN  AND  COMPANY 
CHICAGO  NEW  YORK 


I'M? 


COPYRIGHT,  1919 
SCOTT,  FORESMAN  AND  COMPANY 


ROBERT  O.    LAW    COMPANY 

EDITION  BOOK  MANUFACTURERS 
CHICAGO.       U.       S.      A. 


PREFACE 

If  every  high-school  student  knew  that  the  govern 
mental  oppression  that  caused  the  American  Revo 
lution  was  ' '  made  in  Germany, ' '  our  democracy  would 
be  more  secure.  For  as  long  as  there  lurks  in  the  back 
of  the  American  consciousness  a  suspicion  of  English 
tyranny  in  1775,  so  long  will  misunderstanding  pre 
vent  the  English-speaking  nations  from  working  in 
accord  to  develop  Anglo-Saxon  freedom.  Not  until 
the  younger  generation  has  learned  to  distinguish  be 
tween  the  English  freedom  of  1775  and  "the  slavery 
that  they  may  have  from  Prussia,"  will  America  re 
turn  to  that  "unsuspecting  confidence  in  the  mother 
country"  which  is  vital  to  the  future  progress  of 
democracy  throughout  the  world.  To  teach  that  dis 
tinction  is  pre-eminently  the  task  of  the  schools;  on 
every  hand  there  is  a  demand  that  teaching  should  be 
more  in  accord  with  the  great  fact  of  1775  and  that 
textbooks  should  bring  into  relief  this  truth:  The 
American  Revolution  was  not  an  attempt  of  England 
to  tyrannize  over  colonies,  but  was  a  quarrel  fomented 
by  a  German  king  as  part  of  his  program  of  despotic 
ambition. 

To  some  teachers  that  may  sound  like  an  extreme 
statement  adapted  to  the  emotions  of  a  new-found 
gratitude  to  England.  YetJ;here  is  nothing  novel  or 

5^  i  L  \  b 


4  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

exaggerated  about  it.  Burke  analyzed  it  completely  in 
his  Thoughts  on  the  Cause  of  the  Present  Discontents; 
Green  explained  it  in  the  plainest  terms;  Fiske  made 
it  obvious ;  Trevelyan  disclosed  it  fully.  And  if  any 
one  supposes  that  these  historians  were  making  special 
pleas  for  the  sake  of  amity,  he  may  read  the  most  con 
vincing  and  elaborate  of  all  testimonies  in  the  work  of 
a  historian  who  was  not  swerved  by  any  such  motive — 
Lecky.  There  was  no  English  tyranny  over  America 
until  a  German  king  had  tricked  his  colonists  into 
hating  his  ministry,  until  he  had  created  a  servile 
House  of  Commons,  and  until  he  had  inflamed  against 
each  other  his  subjects  on  two  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

Burke  was  not  pleading  for  America  against  an 
English  Toryism.  He  voiced  the  common  feeling  of 
Englishmen  who  had  any  real  ideas  about  America,  of 
most  of  the  members  of  Commons  who  were  not 
hired  " king's  men."  He  spoke  the  common  thought 
of  England  as  it  was  before  public  opinion  had  been 
poisoned  by  a  Hanoverian.  He  was  pleading  the  cause 
of  English  freedom  against  a  despotism  as  Hunnish 
as  that  which  was  recently  plotted  on  Wilhelmstrasse. 
His  speech  is  a  revelation  of  that  ideal  of  democracy 
— of  "Magnanimity  as  the  truest  wisdom" — which 
has  guided  England,  which  has  guided  America,  and 
by  which  both  countries  must  henceforth  be  guided 
in  concord  if  they  are  to  fulfil  a  useful  destiny. 

The  nature  of  Burke 's  plea  for  conciliation  cannot 
be  understood  by  any  amount  of  study  of  the  speech 
itself,  nor  can  any  mere  introduction  and  notes  reveal 
convincingly  the  amazing  facts  of  1775.  An  under- 


PREFACE  5 

standing  can  be  gained  only  by  reading  what  typical 
Englishmen  said  while  the  American  Revolution  was 
being  fomented,  and  by  reading  the  judgments  of  vari 
ous  historians.  This  knowledge  the  ideal  teacher  seeks 
and  finds  by  many  days  of  exploration  in  a  library; 
he  sluices  tons  of  irrelevant  matter  to  acquire  the  pre 
cious  ounces  of  information.  The  ideal  teacher  does 
this.  The  rest  of  us — if  I  may  judge  by  my  own  case — 
teach  what  an  editor  provides,  because  it  seems  even 
more  copious  than  a  class  has  time  for.  Not  till  1917 
was  I  driven  to  learn  more  about  this  "slavery  that 
they  may  have  from  Prussia."  The  revelation  has 
made  the  Conciliation  much  more  entertaining  to  me 
and  the  students.  For  now  there  is  a  villain  in  the 
story,  and  we  learn  a  very  useful  truth  about  English 
freedom.  I  feel  touched  and  grieved  because  editors 
have  never  given  so  much  as  an  inkling  of  the  vital 
fact.  I  should  suppose  that  all  teachers  of  Burke  would 
feel  the  same.  This  material  has  not  been  available 
to  the  student,  and  in  many  cases  not  even  to  the 
teacher.  For  the  first  time  it  is  presented  in  one  handy 
volume.  The  Collateral  Readings  from  Burke 's  Works 
and  the  Speeches  of  Pitt  and  Fox,  and  the  extracts 
from  historians  are  not  an  appendix ;  they  are  illumi 
nating  material  intended  to  be  read  side  by  side  with 
the  Burke. 

I  hope  that  the  introduction  and  notes  are  contrived 
to  make  the  Conciliation  appear  like  the  human  and 
interesting  document  that  it  is.  If  that  wish  seems 
excessive  optimism  to  those  of  us  who  have  taught 
the  speech  for  a  decade  or  two,  we  should  remember 


6  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

that  the  current  of  history  now  sets  our  way.  For 
every  young  American  there  is  now  a  meaning  in 
Burke  that  did  not  exist  in  1913.  Never  did  a  school 
classic  carry  such  a  present-day  message  or  furnish 
so  definite  an  answer  to  a  national  demand. 

Grateful  acknowledgment  is  made  to  Longmans, 
Green  and  Co.,  who  kindly  gave  us  permission  to  use 
the  extracts  from  The  American  Revolution  and 
George  the  Third  and  Charles  Fox  by  G.  O.  Trevelyan. 

C.  H.  WARD. 
WATERTOWN,  CONN. 

December  13, 1918. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION  : 

The  German  Foe  of  English  Freedom,  George  III . . 9 

The  Champion  of  English  Freedom,  Edmund  Burke 22 

The  Triumph  of  German  Intrigue  in  1775 29 

BURKE'S  SPEECH  OX  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA 41 

IMPORTANT  COLLATERAL  READINGS 

I    How  THE  AMERICAN  KEVOLUTION  WAS  REGARDED  IN 

ENGLAND 

From  G.  O.  Trevelyan's  American  Eeiolution. . . .   129 
II     THE  POWER  OF  GEORGE  III 

From  G.   O.    Trevelyan's   George   the   Third  and 

Charles  Fox 146 

From  W.  E.  H.  Lecky's  A  History  of  England  in 

tlie  Eighteenth  Century .- 156 

III     SELECTIONS  FROM  BURKE 

Speech  on  American  Taxation 169 

The  Letter  to  the  Sheriffs  of  Bristol  on  the  Affairs 

of    America 193 

Thoughts  on  the  Cause  of  the  Present  Discontents  218 
IV    BURKE'S  POWER  AS  AN  ORATOR 

Extracts  from  G.  O.  Trevelyan's  George  the  Third 

and  Charles  Fox 237 

V     SPEECH  OF  WILLIAM  PITT,  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM, 

MOVING  THE  REMOVAL  OF  TROOPS  FROM  BOSTON  .   243 
VI    EXCERPTS  FROM  THE  SPEECHES  OF  CHARLES  JAMES 

Fox   256 

VII     EXCERPTS  FROM  THE  PARLIAMENTARY  HISTORY  FOR 

1775-1776    .265 


CONTENTS 


,OF  £THfc  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  ..................  283 

WHERE  BURKE  SPOKE  .................................  284 

NOTES  ..............................................  286 

i 

A  BRIEF  BIBLIOGRAPHY  ................................  303 

APPENDIX 

Helps  to  Study  ...................................   304 

INDEX   .  .  311 


INTRODUCTION 

An  outline  of  those  "amazing  facts  of  1775,"  re 
ferred  to  in  the  next  to  the  last  paragraph  of  the 
Preface,  is  given  in  this  Introduction.  The  student 
should  read  also  the  Collateral  Readings,  a  compact 
body  of  extracts  from  speeches  by  Burke,  Pitt,  and 
Fox,  and  excerpts  from  Histories. 

THE  GERMAN  FOE  OP  ENGLISH  FREEDOM, 
GEORGE  in 

The  best  introduction  to  Burke  ?s  Conciliation  is  a 
picture  of  what  happened  in  1758,  about  Thanks 
giving  time,  in  the  wild  forest  of  western  Pennsyl 
vania.  A  stockaded  fort  named  Duquesne,  which 
had  been  held  by  the  French  and  Indians,  was  burned 
at  midnight,  and  the  garrison  retreated  northward. 
The  next  afternoon  two  regiments  of  English  soldiers, 
who  had  been  toiling  westward  since  early  summer, 
appeared  at  the  edge  of  the  clearing  and  viewed  the 
smoking  ruins.  One  of  the  English  colonels  was 
George  Washington.  He  was  a  British  officer  leading 
colonial  Englishmen  under  a  general  from  England. 
If  you  had  called  him  an  ' '  American, ' '  he  would  have 
thought  you  were  using  a  kind  of  nickname.  He  and 
his  fellow  colonists  were  proud  that  they  were  Eng 
lishmen;  they  gladly  and  loyally  served  an  English 

9 


10  BTJE^E'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

king  'because   he  represented   the   freedom   without 
;  wMdx*  toy."* thought  life  not  worth  living. 

The  capture  of  Duquesne  was  a  victory  near  the  end 
of  the  French  and  Indian  War.  This  was  part  of  a 
contest  that  England  carried  on  for  seven  years  to 
preserve  herself  against  the  two  great  autocracies  of 
Europe,  the  Bourbons  and  the  Hapsburgs.  English 
men  at  home  and  in  the  colonies  were  equally  con 
cerned  in  this  struggle  to  make  the  world  safe  for 
English  freedom.  No  colonist  felt  secure  as  long  as 
a  Bourbon  monarch  held  the  continent  to  the  north 
and  west.  The  colonists  rejoiced  in  1763  when  Eng 
land  won  its  long  fight,  when  Canada  became  an 
English  province,  and  when  their  English  liberties 
were  safe  in  the  new  world.  When  Fort  Duquesne 
was  rebuilt,  they  named  it  Pittsburgh  in  honor  of 
William  Pitt1,  the  greatest  Englishman  of  that  time, 
who  had  done  more  than  any  other  man  to  secure  the 
victory  in  the  Seven  Years'  War.  Eight  million  peo 
ple  in  England  and  two  million  in  the  colonies  ad 
mired  him  and  honored  him.  Under  his  leadership 
the  colonists  had  spent  their  money  and  lives  to  destroy 
the  power  of  autocracy  in  the  western  hemisphere. 

Though  at  this  time,  as  Burke  says,  ' '  a  fierce  spirit 
of  liberty  was  stronger  in  the  English  colonies  than 
in  any  other  people  of  the  earth,"  the  colonists  felt 
that  they  owed  their  liberty  to  the  English  govern 
ment.  Though  they  could  "  snuff  the  approach  of 
tyranny  in  every  tainted  breeze,"  they  had  no  suspi 
cion  of  the  mother  country ;  indeed  they  felt  an  *  *  un- 

'See  his  speeches  in  the  Collateral  Headings,  pp.  243-255. 


INTRODUCTION  H 

suspecting  confidence"  in  it.  They  never  dreamed  of 
a  quarrel  with  their  kindred  in  England.  The  foun 
dation  of  Burke 's  Concilati&n  is  this  strong  attach 
ment  and  affection  which  the  colonists  felt  toward 
their  British  empire. 

Yet  within  sixteen  years  minute-men  were  organiz 
ing  at  Lexington  to  meet  British  regulars,  and  Burke 
rose  in  the  House  of  Commons  to  plead  against  civil 
war.  What  had  brought  about  this  disastrous  change  1 
The  German  king  of  England,  George  III.  He  hated 
Pitt,  hated  English  freedom,  was  resolved  to  be  a 
"real  monarch,"  like  the  Stuart  who  had  been  be 
headed.  He  became  as  persistent  and  dangerous  an 
enemy  as  England  ever  had.  Twenty  years  after  Pitt 
had  raised  his  country  to  pre-eminence,  George  III 
brought  it  to  shame  and  the  verge  of  ruin.  How  a 
German  acquired  such  power  in  England  is  a  long  and 
complicated  story,  but  an  outline  of  it  can  be  presented 
in  a  few  paragraphs.1  Without  this  much  knowledge 
of  the  historical  setting  Burke 's  speech  has  little 
meaning. 

The  modern  development  of  English  liberties  began 
with  the  "Great  Rebellion,"  at  the  end  of  which  the 
Stuart  King,  Charles  I,  was  beheaded  in  1649.  Thirty- 
nine  years  later  another  Stuart  king,  James  II,  was 
deposed  in  the  ' '  Great  and  Glorious  Revolution. ' '  But 
the  nation  was  not  prepared  for  the  form  of  a  repub 
lic.  Public  opinion  still  wished  the  form  of  govern 
ment  to  be  a  monarchy  under  a  king  who  had  a  legal 
right  to  the  throne  by  descent,  but  who  should  have 

'See  the  Collateral  Readings,  pp.  146-155. 


12  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

no  power  for  tyranny.  William,  the  ruler  of  the  Neth 
erlands,  was  such  a  man ;  he  signed  an  agreement  that 
his  only  right  to  rule  was  the  will  of  the  people.  In 
1714  it  became  necessary  to  invite  another  king  from 
abroad.  Curiously  enough  this  man  was  the  ruler  of 
the  small  German  state  of  Hanover.  Though  he  could 
not  speak  English,  he  was  invited  to  become  the  mon 
archical  figurehead  because  his  grandmother  had  been 
a  daughter  of  the  first  Stuart  king ;  his  blood  was  one- 
fourth  Stuart  and  three-fourths  German.  He  had 
small  power  in  English  politics ;  his  only  hope  of  secur 
ity  was  in  the  great  Whig  leaders  who  had  managed 
the  Kevolution  and  were  opposed  to  Stuart  tyranny. 
A  group  of  these  Whigs — able  and  patriotic  men- 
formed  a  kind  of  committee  of  management  of  English 
affairs.  The  Tory  supporters  of  the  Stuarts  were 
driven  utterly  out  of  power ;  a  thoroughly  Whig  House 
of  Commons  was  elected ;  the  government  was  carried 
on  by  a  Whig  ' '  cabinet, ' '  or  ministry. 

The  cabinet  had  to  see  to  it  that  the  Tories  remained 
in  a  very  small  minority,  for  there  was  real  danger 
of  an  attempt  to  restore  the  Stuarts.  So  they  bought 
enough  seats  for  their  purpose.  For  more  than  twenty 
years  one  Whig  leader,  Robert  Walpole,  controlled— 
practically  had  in  his  pocket — two-thirds  of  the  mem 
bership.  Walpole  was  the  real  executive  of  the  nation. 
His  official  position  was  that  of  "prime  minister." 
In  the  system  of  government  that  developed  while  he 
was  in  power  a  prime  minister  was  appointed  by  the 
king ;  he  was  empowered  to  *  *  form  a  ministry ' ' — that 
is,  to  select  a  dozen  leaders  from  the  houses  of  Com- 


IXTKODUCTIOX  13 

mons  and  Lords  who  would  serve  as  an  executive  com 
mittee  for  managing  the  kingdom.  Naturally  they 
had  to  be  chosen  largely  from  the  party  that  was  in 
the  majority,  for  it  was  their  business  to  shape  legis 
lation  and  to  direct  national  affairs.  (The  minority 
was  called 'the  "opposition.")  If  the  ministry  had 
betrayed  its  trust,  or  if  it  had  tried  to  lead  where  the 
party  would  not  follow,  it  would  have  made  itself  use 
less;  for  it  could  not  have  managed  the  government 
if  the  majority  was  against  it.  Or  if  the  king  had 
appointed  a  prime  minister  who  was  opposed  by  the 
majority,  the  king  would  have  been  powerless  to  en 
force  his  policies.  Thus  the  ministry  became  the  regu 
lator  of  the  machinery  of  government.  It  could 
continue  in  office  as  long  as  it  could  command  a  major 
ity;  if  opposed  by  a  majority,  it  had  to  resign,  and 
the  king  had  to  appoint  a  new  minister.  Walpole 
had  to  resign  when  Commons  wished  a  war  to  which 
he  was  opposed.  He  was  followed  by  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle,  who  also  was  an  unblushing  owner  of  two- 
thirds  of  the  seats.  "When  the  Seven  Years'  "War 
began,  in  1756,  Pitt  was  the  real  leader  of  the  nation  j 
he  was  naturally  made  prime  minister.  But  he  con 
trolled  no  votes  and  would  have  been  helpless  if  he 
had  not  combined  his  lofty  energies  with  Newcastle's 
political  machine. 

This  method  of  governing  by  a  ministry  kept  George 
I  from  exercising  any  kingly  power.  George  II,  who 
was  one-eighth  more  German  than  his  father  and  who 
had  never  seen  England  till  he  was  thirty-one  years 
old,  was  also  obliged  to  be  a  figurehead.  He  hated  the 


14  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

great  Pitt  and  cared  more  for  his  native  Hanover  than 
for  England;  but  his  German  "will  to  power"  was 
helpless. 

His  grandson,  George  III,  was  the  next  king.  He 
was  a  tall,  ruddy  man,  with  a  retreating  chin  and  a 
narrow  forehead,  who  talked  very  rapidly  and  had 
a  habit  of  adding  a  sharp  "what?"  to  the  end  of  his 
numerous  questions.  His  mind  was  also  narrow,  but 
he  had  a  retentive  memory  for  petty  things.  He  had 
considerable  skill  in  the  tricks  of  kingcraft  and  was 
courageous  in  the  face  of  danger.  He  was  intensely 
religious  and  lived  a  rigorous  and  frugal  life.  He 
was  the  only  one  of  the  five  Hanoverian  kings  of  Eng 
land  whose  life  was  clean.  But  his  very  morality  made 
him  more  dangerous1  than  if  he  had  been  idle  or  dis 
sipated. 

Though  he  had  been  born  in  England  and  had  the 
speech  and  manners  of  an  Englishman,  his  blood  was 
31/32  German;  and  when  he  came  to  the  throne  in 
1760,  he  showed  a  genuine  Teutonic  lust  for  power 
and  detestation  of  liberty.  He  had  also  the  German 
gift  for  hating — had  hated  his  grandfather,  hated  his 
son,  hated  Pitt  and  all  the  Whigs,  hated  the  mere 
sound  of  "freedom."  Methodically  and  relentlessly 
he  set  about  gaining  control  of  the  government.  To 
know  how  he  worked  and  how  far  he  had  succeeded  by 
1775  is  to  understand  the  background  of  Burke 's 
speech. 

Perfect  control  of  the  government  could  be  gained 
by  the  king  if  he  could  get  control  of  the  House  of 

'See  the  Collateral  Readings,  pp.  156-168. 


INTRODUCTION  15 

Commons.  This  corresponded  in  a  way  to  our  House 
of  Representatives,  but  with  a  great  difference:  its 
members  were  not  elected  by  a  general  vote  of  the 
people.  In  choosing  representatives  for  the  counties 
and  cities  there  were  real  contests  between  candidates, 
real  elections.  But  the  right  to  vote  was  very  limited : 
in  the  whole  country  there  were  only  160,000  men  who 
had  the  suffrage.  More  than  two-thirds  of  the  mem 
bers  were  not  elected  at  all;  they  were  appointed  by 
men  who  owned  the  " seats"  as  so  many  pieces  of 
property.  When  the  historian  Gibbon,  for  example, 
wished  to  sit  in  Commons,  he  bought  his  seat  as  nat 
urally  and  as  frankly  as  if  he  were  bargaining  for  a 
house;  his  uncle  had  inherited  as  part  of  his  estate 
the  right  to  name  two  members.  Thus  anyone  might 
hope  to  control  Commons  if  he  could  buy  enough  seats 
and  fill  them  with  men  who  would  be  loyal  to  him. 

When.  George  III  became  king  in  1760,  he  at  first 
tried  to  manage  Parliament  through  a  minister  who 
was  an  out-and-out  favorite  and  servile  Tory.  But 
the  country  showed  such  a  fury  of  scorn  for  this  crea 
ture  (Bute)  that  the  king  had  to  go  to  work  another 
way.  He  set  himself  patiently  and  craftily  at  the  long 
task  of  building  up  the  kind  of  control  that  Walpole 
and  Newcastle  had  wielded.  Thus  the  great  Whig 
engine  that  had  been  devised  to  keep  tyranny  down 
was  now  to  be  applied  to  put  English  freedom  down. 
The  king  spent  for  the  purchase  of  seats  and  for  bri 
bery1  more  than  his  income  of  $4,000,000  a  year ;  here 
and  there  and  everywhere  he  got  control  of  patronage ; 

1See  the  Collateral  Readings,  pp.  150-155,  and  165-168. 


>6  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

he  diverted  public  funds  to  buying  support;  he  kept 
records  and  scanned  lists  as  if  his  life  depended  on  it. 
When  his  second  minister  was  voted  out  after  two 
years,  he  tried  another.  In  six  years  he  made  six  min 
istries.  He  stirred  up  quarrels  among  the  Whigs ; 
he  richly  rewarded  any  who  would  be  subservient  and 
tried  to  make  life  unbearable  for  those  who  stood  out 
against  him;  he  welcomed  one  after  another  those 
Tories,  who  had  so  long  lived  in  disgruntled  retire 
ment,  and  who  were  now  astonished  and  gratified  to 
find  that  this  "Whig  importation"  of  a  king  was  a 
monarch  after  their  own  hearts.  When  he  was  forced 
to  make  Pitt  prime  minister,  he  thwarted  him  as  far 
as  he  could.  He  was  resolved  to  bend  Englishmen  to 
his  will — at  home  by  political  control  and  in  the  colo 
nies  by  a  new  system  of  taxation.  For  his  prime  pur 
pose  in  coercing  the  colonies  was  not  to  get  money, 
but  to  get  obedience,  to  make  their  government  less 
democratic.  After  ten  years  of  shrewd  and  unremit 
ting  exertion  he  triumphed  at  home.  He  had  built  up 
a  control  of  Commons  more  absolute  than  Walpole's. 

How  deadly  an  attack  this  was  upon  English  free 
dom  may  be  judged  by  a  pamphlet  that  Burke  wrote 
in  1770,  called  Thoughts  Upon  the  Caiise  of  the  Pres 
ent  Discontents.1  In  that  chaos  of  shifting  enmities  it 
was  hard  to  see  the  one  cause.  Even  now,  after  histo 
rians  have  been  explaining  for  a  century,  we  find  an 
ordinary  account  of  the  politics  of  that  period  a  mazy 
confusion.  Burke  dissected  out  the  one  simple  cause, 
traced  its  ramifications,  and  displayed  it  clearly:  the 

'See  pp.  218-236. 


INTRODUCTION  17 

ambition  of  the  crown  to  destroy  the  liberties  of  the 
people.  Though  his  style  is  measured  and  careful,  he 
uses  such  expressions  as  these :  ' '  Our  freedom  is  at 
stake. "  "  Parliament  will  become  the  mere  appendage 
and  support  of  the  arbitrary  power  of  the  crown." 
"The  result  of  the  court's  purposes  will  be  that  the 
sword  will  govern  us."  "The  ministry  has  become  a 
garrison  of  'king's  men'  to  enslave  us."  "This  court 
faction  pursues  a  scheme  for  undermining  all  the  foun 
dations  of  our  freedom. "  "If  the  power  of  the  court 
is  not  checked,  we  must  be  hurried  into  all  the  rage 
of  civil  violence,  or  sink  into  the  dead  repose  of  des 
potism."  Such  statements  might  be  called  ranting  if 
they  had  been  made  by  a  colonist  or  an  ordinary  poli 
tician,  but  they  were  made  by  Burke  in  a  statesman's 
analysis. 

In  Burke 's  American  Taxation1  (delivered  in  1774) 
he  is  outspoken  and  bitter  against  the  King,  the  King's 
ministry,  the  King 's  ' '  men, ' '  the  King 's  treachery,  the 
King 's  scheme  for  fomenting  discord  between  the  colo 
nists  and  the  House  of  Commons.  When  he  spoke  on 
conciliation  in  1775,  his  convictions  were  even  more 
profound  and  bitter — as  we  know  from  remarks 
quoted  in  the  Parliamentary  History  for  January, 
February,  and  March.  But  this  bitterness  is  hardly 
allowed  to  appear.  Apparently  he  designed  to  have 
the  whole  tone  of  his  speech  conciliatory;  he  wished 
to  be  as  winning  and  persuasive  as  possible  in  such  a 
crisis,  not  to  disturb  his  serious  plea  by  wrangling  or 
accusation.  To  be  sure  there  is  some  sarcasm,  yet  his 

'See  pp.  169-193. 


18  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

listeners  must  have  been  much  more  impressed  by  his 
temperate  tone;  to  them  the  contrast  was  the  most 
striking  proof  of  Burke 's  earnestness  in  pleading  for 
conciliation. 

This  contrast  is  lost  upon  a  reader  who  does  not 
know  about  the  violent  denunciations  of  the  North 
ministry  that  were  usual1  in  Commons  at  that  time. 
This  detestation  of  the  King's  methods  of  creating 
rebellion  is  the  background  of  the  Conciliation.  On 
January  19  Burke  was  "  sorry  to  hear  how  knavish 
the  noble  lord  has  been, ' '  and  kept  the  House  in  a  con 
tinual  roar  of  laughter  by  his  attack  on  North.  On 
January  24 :  * '  I  will  not  trouble  the  noble  lord  to  walk 
out  every  five  minutes  to  inter  petitions  in  his  cemetery 
of  oblivion. ' '  And  Fox  charged  North  with  * '  the  most 
unexampled  treachery  and  falsehood."  On  February 
13  Temple  Luttrell  said :  * '  It  is  by  the  German  policy 
of  dominion  that  British  America  is  to  be  reduced  to 
vassalage.  But  let  the  all-potent  minions  beware  lest 
while  they  are  bowing  the  stubborn  necks  of  these 
colonists  to  the  yoke  they  find  not  their  own  necks  bow 
to  the  block  of  an  executioner."  On  February  20 
Burke  said  that  North's  project  was  " oppressive,  ab 
surd,  like  the  tyranny  of  Nebuchadnezzar. ' '  On  Feb 
ruary  24  he  declared  that  the  Penal  Bill  "tells  the 
starving  Americans  that  they  may  poke  in  the  brooks 
and  rake  in  the  puddles. ' '  He  spoke  so  hotly  that  he 
was  called  to  order  by  the  chair.  On  March  15  he 
spoke  of  North's  "ruinous  and  mad  career  of  vio 
lence." 

'See  the  Collateral  Readings,  pp.  265-282. 


INTRODUCTION  19 

All  through  the  session  the  House  had  been  kept 
in  ignorance  of  how  many  troops  were  being  sent 
against  the  colonies  and  of  what  military  steps  were 
being  taken.  To  this  dastardly  scheming  the  opposi 
tion  had  continually  objected.  North  said  that  Fox1 
and  Burke  "constantly  made  a  point,  not  only  of  at 
tacking,  but  of  threatening  me. ? '  On  Feb.  2  Dunning 
went  so  far  as  to  say :  * '  I  insist  that  every  appearance 
of  riot  and  sedition  which  the  noble  lord  has  so  faith 
fully  recounted  arises  not  from  disobedience  or  re 
bellion,  but  is  created  by  the  conduct  of  those  who  are 
anxious  to  establish  despotism,  and  whose  views  are 
manifestly  directed  to  reduce  America  to  the  most 
abject  state  of  servility,  as  a  prelude  to  realizing  the 
same  wicked  system  in  the  mother  country. ' '  On  Feb 
ruary  6  Lord  Irnham  said : ' '  The  making  of  our  Prince 
[George  III]  absolute  and  despotic  over  all  his  vast 
American  dominions  may  prove  ruinous  to  our  liberty, 
property,  and  every  civil  right";  and  he  called  the 
King's  men  "a  contemptible  collection  of  servile  cour 
tiers,  renegade  "Whigs,  and  fawning,  bigoted  Tories." 
In  the  House  of  Lords  the  Duke  of  Manchester,  in  a 
"moderate  and  pathetic "  speech,  foretold  "a  civil  war 
which  I  fear  will  terminate  in  the  inevitable  destruc 
tion  of  the  whole  empire."2 

The  responsibility  for  this  attack  upon  English  free 
dom  was  not  charged  against  North  or  the  servile 
Tories.  Governor  Johnstone  said  on  February  6:  "I 

'See  the  Collateral  Readings,  pp.  256-264. 
2For  further  examples  see  Excerpts  from  Parliamentary  His 
tory,  pp.  265-282. 


20  BUEKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

perceive  from  the  noble  lord's  faint  manner  of  stating 
his  propositions  that  they  are  not  the  dictates  of  his 
own  mind,  and  that  they  are  forced  on  him ' ' — that  is, 
by  the  King.  Burke  said  (December  16)  of  the  King's 
speech  from  the  throne,  "It  breathed  nothing  but 
war. ' '  After  war  had  begun  Burke  vented  his  feelings 
in  sentences  like  these :  '  *  War  is  at  present  carried  on 
by  the  King 's  natural  and  foreign  troops  on  one  side, 
and  the  English  in  America  on  the  other."  "It  tends 
to  make  an  eternal  rent  and  schism  in  the  British  na 
tion.  "  "  The  affection  of  the  Americans  is  a  thousand 
times  more  worth  to  us  than  the  mercenary  zeal  of  all 
the  circles  of  Germany."1 

It  was  against  this  evil  Hanoverian  policy  of  dom 
ination  and  frightfulness  that  Burke  made  his  vain 
plea  for  conciliation,  picturing  with  prophetic  wis 
dom  the  power  of  affection,  of  love  for  English  liber 
ties. 

Americans  nowadays  may  suppose  that  Burke  and 
his  colleagues  overrated  the  power  of  a  German  king 
and  exaggerated  the  danger  to  English  freedom.2  But 
that  danger  was  quite  as  great  as  Burke  pictured  it. 
A  modern  historian,  Lecky,  thus  describes  it:  "The 
period  of  the  accession  of  George  III  was  exceedingly 
propitious  to  his  design,  which  was  in  many  respects 
more  plausible  than  is  now  generally  admitted.  .  .  . 

'See  Letter  to  the  Sheriffs  of  Bristol,  pp.  193-217. 

2For  an  illuminating  and  stimulating  summary  of  the  nature- 
of  this  contest  for  freedom  in  the  eighteenth  century  see  Edwin 
Greenlaw's  Builders  of  Democracy  (Scott,  Foresman  and  Com 
pany),  Part  Two,  Section  XL 


INTRODUCTION  21 

About  the  year  1770  there  was  grave  danger  that  the 
Crown  would  regain  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  power  it  had 
lost  by  the  Revolution.  ...  In  the  early  years  of 
his  reign  representative  institutions  were  the  rare  ex 
ception,  and  the  influence  of  foreign  example  and 
opinion  was  almost  wholly  on  the  side  of  despotism. 
Europe  was  strewn  with  the  wrecks  of  the  liberties  of 
the  past.  All  the  greatest  states,  all  the  rising  and 
most  vigorous  powers,  were  despotic,  and  the  few  re 
maining  sparks  of  liberty  seemed  flickering  in  the 
socket.  The  prospects  of  liberty  were  very  gloomy; 
and  during  the  American  War  it  was  the  strong  belief 
of  the  chief  Whig  politicians  that  the  defeat  of  the 
Americans  would  probably  be  followed  by  a  subver 
sion  of  the  Constitution  of  England.  .  .  .  He  in 
flicted  more  profound  and  enduring  injuries  upon  his 
country  than  any  other  modern  English  king.  Re 
solved  at  ail  hazards  to  compel  his  ministers  to  adopt 
his  own  views,  he  espoused  with  passionate  eagerness 
the  American  quarrel,  resisted  obstinately  the  meas 
ures  of  conciliation  by  which  it  might  easily  have  been 
stifled,  envenomed  it  by  his  glaring  partisanship,  and 
protracted  it  for  several  years  in  opposition  to  the 
advice  of  his  own  favorite  minister."1 

It  is  no  wonder  that  Burke  called  the  American 
question  "an  awful  subject,"  that  North  called  it  "a 
matter  of  the  greatest  magnitude  ever  debated  within 
these  walls, ' '  that  Burgoyne  called  it  * '  an  unparalleled 
moment  in  English  history." 

'See  Extracts  from  Lecky,  pp.  156-168. 


22  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

THE  CHAMPION  OF  ENGLISH  FREEDOM, 
EDMUND   BURKE 

The  most  unrelenting  opponent  of  the  German  king 
was  Edmund  Burke.  He  was  not  a  superman  like  the 
eider  Pitt ;  he  had  no  such  strength  in  practical  states 
manship  as  the  younger  Pitt ;  nor  is  he  endeared  to  us 
by  any  romance  of  life  or  splendor  of  career.  But  he 
has  commanded  the  respect — we  may  even  say  the 
awe — of  posterity  by  the  grandeur  and  honest  wisdom 
of  his  speeches.  He  was  the  propagator  of  that 
peculiarly  English  idea  that  ' ' magnanimity  is  the 
truest  wisdom. ' '  His  greatest  illustration  of  this  prin 
ciple  is  his  Speech  on  Conciliation  with  America,  de 
livered  in  Commons  about  a  month  before  the  battle 
of  Lexington.  This  will  seem  much  more  alive  to  a 
modern  reader  if  he  has  in  mind  a  sketch  of  Burke 's 
career. 

Edmund  Burke  was  an  Irishman  born  in  Dublin, 
in  1729.  His  father  (a  lawyer)  was  a  Protestant; 
his  mother  and  wife  were  Catholics ;  and  the  teacher 
who  profoundly  influenced  him  was  a  Quaker.  Hence 
he  learned  a  sympathy  with  different  religious 
beliefs.  And  in  most  other  matters  his  knowledge  was 
broad  and  many-sided.  At  Dublin  University,  which 
he  entered  before  he  was  fifteen,  he  eagerly  read  many 
kinds  of  books.  When  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  his 
father  sent  him  to  study  law  in  London,  he  devoted 
much  of  his  time  to  philosophy.  He  wrote  a  philo 
sophical  analysis  of  the  nature  of  "The  Sublime  and 
Beautiful, "  and  was  a  keen  critic  of  art.  He  enjoyed 


INTRODUCTION  23 

the  theater,  wrote  a  brief  history  of  England,  com 
posed  some  verse,  traveled  a  good  deal,  and  had  a  plan 
to  visit  the  American  colonies. 

In  them  he  had  always  felt  a  special  interest;  he 
published  a  history  and  description  of  them  as  early 
as  1757,  and  was  always  adding  to  his  vast  store  of 
information  about  them.  This  consisted  of  much  more 
than  facts.  His  imagination  was  forever  amplifying  a 
vivid  picture  of  that  distant  and  important  people. 
In  his  mind  he  could  see  them  and  feel  with  them. 
Six  years  before  he  entered  Parliament  he  began  to 
edit  the  Annual  Register,  a  handbook  of  general  infor 
mation  like  the  Statesman's  Year  Book.  He  familiar 
ized  himself  in  a  marvelous  way  with  all  the  ins  and 
outs  of  complicated  government  policies:  his  brain 
became  a  kind  of  library  and  picture  gallery  of  all 
that  Parliament  and  the  ministries  had  done. 

He  had  a  gift  for  friendship.  The  most  famous 
actor  of  the  day  liked  him ;  the  most  learned  and  witty 
woman  of  the  day  was  attracted  by  him ;  the  greatest 
painter  loved  him  all  his  life  and  called  him  * '  the  best 
judge  of  a  picture  I  ever  knew ' ' ;  Dr.  Johnson,  though 
entirely  opposed  to  Burke 's  politics,  always  admired 
and  esteemed  him.  ' '  If , "  said  Johnson,  *  *  a  man  were 
to  go  by  chance  at  the  same  time  with  Burke  under  a 
shed  to  shun  a  shower,  he  would  say,  *  This  is  an  extra 
ordinary  man.'  '  "When  Johnson  was  on  his  death 
bed,  he  was  glad  to  have  Burke  beside  him. 

The  impression  of  ' '  extraordinary ' '  was  made  upon 
all  who  met  him.  In  spite  of  his  unassuming  and 
friendly  manner  he  impressed  people  with  the  sense 


24  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

of  force  and  genius.  "His  figure,"  says  Fanny 
Burney,  "is  noble;  his  air  commanding;  his  address 
graceful;  his  voice  .clear,  sonorous,  powerful;  his 
manners  attractive ;  his  conversation  past  all  praise. ' ' 
As  early  as  1759  he  was  recognized  as  having  "a 
most  extensive  knowledge,  with  extraordinary  talents 
for  public  business, ' '  and  became  secretary  to  a  promi 
nent  member  of  Commons.  In  this  position  he  became 
acquainted  with  other  members,  who  foresaw  that  the 
nation  would  have  need  of  him.  So  much  did  the  fame 
of  his  talents  increase  that  the  Marquis  of  Rocking- 
ham,  who  formed  a  ministry  in  1765,  employed  him  as 
a  confidential  adviser.  The  Marquis  needed  the  coun 
sel  of  someone  who  understood  America.  For  the 
Stamp  Act,  which  had  been  put  through  Parliament 
by  a  ministry  of  "king's  men,"  had  been  received  in 
the  colonies  with  an  outburst  of  rebellious  indignation ; 
no  stamps  could  be  sold,  no  legal  business  transacted ; 
the  home  government  had  been  defied.  Rockingham's 
new  ministry,  which  really  represented  the  public 
opinion  of  England,  decided  that  the  Stamp  Act  must 
be  repealed.  Rockingham  began  to  muster  his  forces 
and  lay  his  plans.  One  of  his  moves  was  to  secure  a 
seat  in  Commons  for  Burke,  who  made  his  maiden 
speech  on  January  27,  1766,  arguing  that  the  petition 
from  the  colonial  congress  should  be  received.  So  suc 
cessful  was  he  that  the  great  Pitt  declared:  "The 
young  member  has  anticipated  me  with  such  ingenuity 
and  eloquence  that  there  is  little  left  for  me  to  say. ' ' 
Within  a  few  weeks  Burke  had  taken  a  foremost  place 
in  the  House. 


INTRODUCTION  25 

Yet  he  had  certain  marked  defects  as  an  orator. 
He  was  careless  in  dress,  rather  awkward  in  manner, 
and  spoke  very  rapidly  with  a  strong  Irish  accent. 
He  was  too  fond  of  philosophizing  and  too  fond  of 
speaking  at  great  length — once  imposing  upon  a  weary 
House  a  five-hour  speech  that  began  late  at  night.  He 
was,  however,  the  leading  oratorical  genius  of  the 
House.  Horace  Walpole  said:  "His  wit  excited  the 
warmest  and  most  continued  burst  of  laughter,  even 
from  Lord  North."1  Gov.  Johnstone  testified  of  one 
powerful  speech:  "If  strangers  had  been  admitted, 
Burke  would  have  excited  them  to  tear  the  ministers 
to  pieces. ' n  The  Due  de  Levis  declared :  * '  Never  was 
the  electric  power  of  eloquence  more  imperiously  felt. 
I  have  witnessed  many  scenes  where  eloquence  per 
formed  a  noble  part,  but  the  whole  of  them  appeared 
insipid  when  compared  with  this  amazing  effort."1 
Morley  says  of  his  impeachment  of  Hastings:  "He 
spoke  with  such  a  pitch  of  eloquence  and  passion  that 
every  listener,  including  the  great  criminal,  held  his 
breath  in  an  agony  of  horror. ' '  He  had  such  marvelous 
command  of  his  thoughts  and  language  that  even  his 
extempore  remarks  were  as  finished  in  form  and  as 
readily  uttered  as  his  prepared  speeches.  He  did  not 
write  out  what  he  proposed  to  say,  but  simply  planned 
the  order  of  ideas  and  illustrations,  and  then  spoke 
as  the  spirit  of  his  eloquence  moved  him.  Hence  we 
have  no  verbatim  report  of  any  of  his  speeches ;  most 
of  them  were  never  recorded.  In  only  half  a  dozen 

Quoted  by  Lecky.    See  the  Burke 's  Power  as  an  Orator,  pp. 
237-242. 


26  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

cases,  when  he  had  been  urged  to  preserve  what  he  had 
spoken,  did  he  write  but  his  speeches  after  their  deliv 
ery — relying  on  his  notes,  his  memory,  and  his  friends ' 
memories.  Yet  we  know  that  these  written  forms  were 
very  closely  like  what  he  had  said ;  this  Conciliation, 
for  example,  sounds  like  the  natural  flow  of  talking 
rather  than  like  his  systematic  essays. 

For  thirty  years  he  was  an  ardent  force  in  Parlia 
ment,  becoming  the  leader  and  manager  of  the  Whigs 
who  insistently  opposed  the  influence  of  the  court ;  he 
outlined  policies,  spurred  his  colleagues  to  their  duty, 
furnished  arguments,  and  delivtered  speeches  that 
gave  him  the  rank  of  the  greatest  orator  that  England 
ever  produced.  Nevertheless,  this  long  career  of  dili 
gent  patriotism  was  a  series  of  disappointments  and 
hardships.  Only  twice  could  he  feel  the  pleasure  of 
direct  victory ;  after  that  auspicious  beginning  he  was 
always  (except  for  a  few  months)  "voting  with  a  dis 
pirited  minority";  because  he  had  no  aristocratic 
family  connections  and  because  he  was  a  difficult  man 
to  collaborate  with,  he  was  never  given  any  prominent 
office ;  he  was  always  looking  in  vain  for  the  reward  of 
his  useful  genius ;  he  was  always  poor  and  in  debt ;  he 
was  forever  persecuted  by  scandalous  stories  that  he 
was  a  Jesuit  plotter,  a  dishonest  speculator ;  during  a 
period  of  eight  years,  late  in  life,  he  was  so  disap 
pointed  and  bitter  and  imprudent  that  he  was  fre 
quently  jeered  when  he  rose  to  speak. 

This  portion  of  failure,  however,  is  no  more  than 
the  share  that  enters  many  great  lives,  even  of  such 
men  as  Washington  and  Lincoln.  From  year  to  year 


INTRODUCTION  27 

they  seem  to  be  hacking  at  various  foes  in  an  arena; 
they  do  not  live  to  see  the  outcome  of  the  whole  battle. 
In  the  case  of  Burke  the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings  is 
typical  of  his  whole  life.  For  fourteen  years  Burke 
planned  and  conducted  that  most  spectacular  and 
long-drawn-out  impeachment  in  history.  With  pas 
sionate  energy  he  dramatized  the  wrrongs  and  brutali 
ties  committed  by  Hastings  in  gaining  the  empire  of 
India;  with  all  his  art  and  all  his  vast  knowledge  he 
pressed  the  indictment.  Yet  Hastings  was  acquitted. 
So  Burke  had  labored  in  vain  ?  He  may  have  felt  so. 
But  the  indirect  result  of  all  his  zeal  was  to  make 
colonial  brutality  impossible  for  England  in  the 
future ;  he  set  up  a  standard  of  generous  dealing  with 
dependencies,  and  so  added  incalculably  to  the  strength 
of  the  great  fabric  of  the  British  empire  and  to  the 
world 's  conception  of  justice.  So  in  other  respects  his 
career,  when  seen  in  the  perspective  of  history,  appears 
like  a  solid  monument  of  usefulness  and  success. 

Burke 's  achievements  are  not  so  attractive  to  Amer 
ican  eyes  as  the  splendor  of  Pitt's  fame.  -They  shine 
less  brightly  because  Burke  was  a  conservative.  Bril 
liant  schemes  and  hopes  of  reform  do  not  glitter  in 
his  record,  nor  does  he  ever  dazzle  us  with  projects  for 
revolutionizing  society.  He  was  too  wise  for  that. 
His  sure  instinct  taught  him  that  mankind  can  be  im 
proved  only  by  slow  experience,  by  careful  adjustment 
to  each  necessity  as  it  arises.  He  wisely  mistrusted 
mere  experiment,  for  he  knew  that  English  freedom 
had  never  been  advanced  by  experiment.  His  wisdom 
clearly  saw  the  danger  of  tampering  with  the  Consti- 


28  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

tution  on  the  basis  of  mere  theory ;  he  knew  that  the 
chances  of  doing  harm  in  that  way  were  very  great. 
In  this  he  was  like  Washington,  who  wrote  in  the  year 
before  Burke  died  these  solemn  words  about  preserving 
liberty:  "Resist  the  spirit  of  innovation  upon  the 
authority  of  government.  Remember  that  time  and 
habit  are  necessary  to  fix  the  true  forms  of  government. 
Experience  is  the  surest  standard."  Burke 's  wisdom 
was  of  a  piece  with  Washington's.  His  sagacity,  just 
like  Washington's,  foresaw  the  evils  of  the  French 
Revolution.  When  Englishmen  and  Americans  alike 
were  hailing  with  joy  the  fall  of  the  Bastille  in  1789, 
Burke  and  Washington  suspected  the  evils  that  were 
to  follow — the  butchery  and  the  rise  of  a  despotism. 
If  we  wish  that  he  had  been  more  of  a  prophet  of  the 
liberty  that  was  having  such  a  terrible  birth,  we  must 
remember  that  thirty  years  after  he  was  dead  our  own 
Daniel  Webster  was  still  lamenting  at  Bunker  Hill 
"the  conflagration  and  terror"  which  the  French 
Revolution  spread  in  the  world. 

It  was  unfailing  sagacity  that  ennobled  Burke 's 
oratory.  All  his  structures  were  built  on  the  enduring 
foundations  of  a  true  knowledge  of  how  social  forces 
act.  Every  resolution  that  he  opposed  was  at  the  time 
unwise;  every  measure  that  he  fought  for  has  been 
shown  by  history  to  be  wise.  He  was  right  in  his  idea 
of  treating  Catholics  and  non-conformists  more  leni 
ently,  of  reforming  Parliament,  of  giving  the  dema 
gogue  Wilkes  his  seat,  of  abolishing  brutal  punish 
ments  for  crime,  of  stopping  the  slave  trade,  of  being 
humane  in  India.  And  he  was  unfailingly  wise  in  his 


INTRODUCTION  29 

ideas  about  the  colonies.  "With  breadth  of  vision  and 
warmth  of  deep  feeling  he  foresaw  the  truth  about 
empire  that  was  hidden  from  most  of  his  contem 
poraries  :  "My  trust  is  in  their  interest  in  the  British 
Constitution,"  This  faith  for  which  he  pleaded  so 
vainly  in  1775  was  richly  verified  by  Canada  and  New 
Zealand  and  Australia  and  South  Africa  and  India 
in  1914,  when  England  began  the  struggle  against 
' '  that  slavery  which  they  may  have  from  Prussia. ' ' 

THE  TRIUMPH  OF  GERMAN  INTRIGUE  IN   1775 

In  1756  England  began  the  Seven  Years7  "War — a 
fight  for  life  against  the  autocracy  of  France  and 
Austria.  The  colonial  Englishmen  went  into  the  war 
heart  and  soul,  contributing  men  and  money  beyond 
their  means,  fighting  under  the  leadership  of  generals 
from  England.  At  this  time  Washington,  Gates,  and 
Putnam  got  their  training.  By  1759,  when  Quebec 
was  taken,  the  power  of  autocracy  was  dead  in  the 
western  hemisphere.  The  result  among  the  colonists 
was  to  make  them  feel  more  independent,  for  they 
no  longer  needed  the  protection  of  the  mother  country. 
England  was  victorious  in  1763.  But  she  had  spent 
such  vast  sums  of  money  that  she  was  in  financial 
straits  and  needed  revenue.  A  very  natural  way  of 
adding  to  her  income  was  to  tax  the  colonies. 

This  was  an  entirely  new  policy.  Up  to  that  year  all 
income  from  the  colonies  had  been  obtained  in  an 
entirely  different  way — by  trade  laws.  The  nature 
of  these  was  to  "restrain"  (i.  e.,  to  limit)  colonial 
commerce  to  English  ports:  most  exports  had  to  be 


30  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

shipped  to  England,  most  imports  had  to  come  from 
England,  and  the  demand  for  English  goods  was  main 
tained  by  forbidding  much  manufacture  in  the 
colonies.  Thus  the  trade  laws  were  not  a  form  of  tax 
ation,  but  they  increased  England's  wealth  by  increas 
ing  her  commerce.  With  this  "restraint"  the  colonies 
had  always  been  familiar.  Although  they  had  chafed 
and  grumbled  at  times,  had  smuggled  on  a  grand  scale, 
and  were  resentful  when  trade  laws  were  stringently 
enforced,  their  resentment  was  never  serious.  The 
Congress  of  1774  formally  pledged  obedience  to  "such 
acts  as  are  ~bona  fide  restrained  to  the  regulation  of  our 
external  commerce." 

But  taxation  by  revenue  laws  was  an  entirely  dif 
ferent  matter.  The  instant  a  revenue  tax  was  proposed 
the  colonies  ' '  snuffed  the  approach  of  tyranny. ' '  And 
their  nostrils  did  not  deceive  them.  If  they  could 
have  looked  into  the  King 's  mind,  they  would  have  seen 
that  he  cared  less  about  an  income  than  about  his 
royal  prerogative.  He  and  his  creature  Bute  devised 
a  scheme  of  taxing  Americans.  They  secured  the 
assistance  of  Grenville,  an  honest  and  industrious 
man,  but  a  Tory  and  a  fool,  despised  by  Pitt,  "who 
nicknamed  him  the  "gentle  shepherd."  His  small 
equipment  of  common-sense  may  be  gauged  by  his 
announcement  that  he  entered  the  ministry  '  *  to  secure 
the  King  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Whigs ! ' ' 
It  is  easy  to  guess  how  such  a  person  was  manipulated 
by  a  crafty  king  until  he  believed  in  all  honesty  that 
the  colonies  should  be  taxed.  Shrewd,  practical  states 
men  like  Walpole  and  Pitt  had  declined  to  engage  in 


INTRODUCTION  31 

such  folly,  but  Grenville  was  zealous  for  it.  He  intro 
duced  plans  for  getting  revenue  from  the  colonies.  In 
1763  he  enforced  with  exasperating  suddenness  those 
trade  laws  that  had  never  before  been  enforced  strictly ; 
he  proposed  a  scheme  of  taxation;  and  in  order  to 
make  sure  of  obedience  he  proposed  to  quarter  troops 
on  the  colonists.  In  1765  he  secured  the  passage  of 
the  Stamp  Act,  a  measure  providing  that  all  legal 
documents  and  newspapers  must  be  printed  on  special 
stamped  paper.  His  purpose  was  quite  honest;  his 
measures  were  normal  methods  of  finance  and  were 
passed  with  few  dissenting  votes.  But  it  is  significant 
that  Col.  Barre  (a  huge,  scarred,  swarthy  soldier  who 
had  fought  at  Quebec  and  who  knew  something  about 
American  fighters)  denounced  the  Act.  Where  this 
warrior  feared  to  tread,  the  "gentle  shepherd"  rushed 
confidently  in,  arguing  that  taxes  had  been  much  in 
creased  in  England  and  that  it  was  natural  to  require 
the  colonies  to  bear  their  share  in  paying  the  expenses 
of  the  war  that  had  resulted  so  profitably  to  them.  He 
had  consulted  the  colonial  agents  about  his  measure 
and  had  postponed  it  a  year  while  waiting  for  sug 
gestions  of  some  better  way.  Few  people  in  England 
suspected  that  there  was  anything  momentous  about 
the  Stamp  Act.  Even  Burke,  who  heard  the  debate 
from  the  visitors'  gallery,  probably  expected  no 
hideous  harm. 

But  so  violent  and  complete  was  the  colonial  hos 
tility  that  in  1766  the  Act  was  repealed  under  the 
anti-king  ministry  of  Rockingham.  The  King  was  then 
obliged  to  make  Pitt  prime  minister.  Within  one 


32  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

year  the  colonists  were  made  joyful  and  as  loyal  as 
ever. 

The  adroit  King  quickly  turned  his  defeat  into  tri 
umph.  Pitt,  who  had  suffered  a  nervous  break-down, 
refused  to  take  any  active  part  in  leadership.  The 
ministry  that  conducted  business  in  his  name  was  a 
political  hodge-podge  of  men  who  believed  in  various 
policies  and  who  had  enmities  and  jealousies  among 
themselves.  The  King  artfully  favored  any  minister 
who  would  do  his  bidding,  insulted  or  disgraced  those 
who  would  not,  stirred  up  quarrels,  maneuvered  one 
opponent  of  taxation  into  resigning,  got  a  friend  of 
taxation  in  his  place,  played  discordant  factions 
against  each  other,  tampered  with  every  sensible  plan. 
The  ' '  king 's  men ' '  were  united ;  the  others  were  all  at 
cross-purposes.  One  of  these  "men"  was  Townshend, 
the  wittiest  member  of  Commons,  a  brilliant  fellow, 
called  the  * '  spoiled  child ' '  of  the  House.  While  he  was 
temporarily  in  control  of  the  ministry,  he  secured  the 
passage  of  an  act  to  punish  New  York  for  disobedience 
and  to  impose  a  revenue  on  certain  articles  imported 
into  tlie  colonies — one  of  which  was  tea.  Again  the 
infuriated  colonists  petitioned  and  resisted.  But  the 
only  effect  on  the  King  was  to  make  him  more  deter 
mined  to  bring  his  transatlantic  subjects  to  obedience. 
He  drove  from  the  ministry  all  who  withstood  his  pur 
poses. 

When  Townshend  died,  in  the  fall  of  1767,  the  King 
filled  his  place  with  the  tool  for  which  he  had  been 
searching,  Frederick  North,  called  ' '  Lord, ' '  by  court 
esy,  because  he  was  the  son  of  an  earl.  This  is  "the 


INTRODUCTION  33 

noble  lord  in  the  blue  ribbon"  to  whom  Burke  refers 
so  frequently.  His  features,  oddly  enough,  very  much 
resembled  the  King's.  Personally  he  was  a  likable 
man — portly,  humorous,  with  a  never-ruffled  temper. 
But  he  is  an  odious  figure  in  history  because  he  lent 
himself  completely  to  carrying  out  his  royal  master's 
pernicious  designs.  Against  his  own  better  judgment 
he  forced  through  Parliament  the  acts  that  alienated 
the  colonies.  His  first  great  service  was  to  manage  the 
elections  to  Parliament  in  1768 ;  in  a  century  that  was 
notoriously  corrupt  he  succeeded  in  breaking  the  rec 
ord  for  corruption.  He  had  Commons  in  his  pocket — 
and  not  for  the  use  of  a  ruling  class  of  Englishmen, 
but  for  the  use  of  a  German  king  who  was  resolved  to 
have  obedient  subjects.  George  III  was  at  last  free 
to  deal  with  America  as  he  would.  Two  regiments 
of  soldiers  were  sent  to  Boston  to  overawe  the  people. 
In  1769  the  colonies  were  menaced  by  an  act  providing 
that  traitors  might  be  taken  to  England  for  trial. 
The  King  was  so  gratified  at  having  his  purposes  thus 
thoroughly  carried  out  that  he  procured  for  Lord 
North  (in  1772)  the  most  coveted  aristocratic  honor  in 
England,  a  Knighthood  of  the  Garter.  In  all  Eng 
lish  history  no  commoner  had  ever  worn  across  his 
breast  the  blue  ribbon  of  that  order. 

To  Burke  that  blue  ribbon  was  a  sign  and  symbol  of 
a  German  despotism,  which  was  increasing  its  power 
every  year  by  the  most  vicious  methods.  A  good  ex 
ample  of  the  King's  Hunnish  depravity  is  a  letter 
which  he  directed  Hillsborough  to  write,  and  which 
Burke  refers  to  in  paragraph  96.  In  the  speech  from 


34  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

the  throne  on  May  9,  1769,  the  King  had  announced  a 
policy  of  firmness  with  the  colonies;  five  days  later 
he  told  Hillsborough  to  write  a  secret  letter  to  the 
colonies,  declaring  that  the  King  had  never  had  a  de 
sign  of  taxing  America,  but  that  a  ' t  factious  and  sedi 
tious"  House  of  Commons  had  been  responsible,  and 
that  "the  King  would  rather  part  with  his  crown  than 
preserve  it  by  deceit ! ' '  Such  malevolent  and  dastardly 
crookedness  could  hardly  be  paralleled  in  English 
history.  This  letter,  said  Burke,  in  his  Speech  on 
American  Taxation,  was  the  work  "of  the  noble  lord 
in  the  blue  ribbon  and  of  all  the  King's  ministers." 
(The  rules  of  the  House  did  not  allow  him  to  accuse 
the  King  directly.)  It  showed  that  Commons  had 
become  a  mere  tool  in  the  hands  of  despotism — useful 
for  infuriating  the  colonies,  and  then  useful  for  send 
ing  an  army  against  them. 

The  receipts  from  the  first  year  of  Townshend  reve 
nues  were  $1,500 ;  the  expense  for  maintaining  the 
system  was  $850,000.  Even  the  subservient  Tory  min 
istry  weakened,  and  but  for  North  they  would  have 
rescinded  the  obnoxious  measures.  Finally  even  North 
agreed  to  repeal  the  revenue  law,  except  the  tax  on  tea. 
He  and  his  master  wished  to  establish  the  principle, 
but  saw  that  it  was  necessary  to  appear  to  yield  for  the 
time  being.  So,  in  1770,  the  tone  toward  the  colonies 
was  decidedly  conciliatory.  The  one  duty  retained 
was  so  slight  that  tea  could  be  bought  cheaper  in 
America  than  in  England ;  the  colonies  were  officially 
notified  that  no  other  revenue  would  be  imposed ;  and 
troops  were  no  longer  quartered  on  the  people. 


;          INTRODUCTION  35 

You  have  noticed  that  in  the  four  preceding  para 
graphs  the  policy  toward  the  colonies  has  alternated : 
it  was  coercive  in  1763-65,  conciliatory  in  1766, 
coercive  in  1767-69,  conciliatory  in  1770.  But  the 
colonies  were  not  deceived  by  cheap  tea.  Every  year 
it  became  clearer  that  they  would  fight  before  sub 
mitting  to  the  principle  of  taxation.  In  1770  the 
"Boston  Massacre"  occurred;  in  1771  there  was  a 
pitched  battle  against  the  royal  government  in  North 
Carolina;  the  revenue  cutter  Gaspee  was  burned  in 
1772;  at  the  end  of  1773  came  the  "Boston  Tea 
Party " ;  in  1774  Massachusetts  was  punished  by  hav 
ing  its  port  of  Boston  closed,  by  the  destruction  of  its 
representative  government  ("abrogating  the  char 
ter"),  by  a  provision  that  British  soldiers  were  not  an 
swerable  to  American  law,  and  by  again  having  sol 
diers  quartered  in  Boston.  In  1774  the  other  colonies 
met  in  a  formal  congress  to  pledge  their  support  to 
Massachusetts.  The  situation  grew  constantly  more 
warlike.  More  soldiers  and  warships  were  sent  over 
from  England.  The  colonies  began  to  store  up  supplies 
of  ammunition.  Minute-men  began  to  train  in  New 
England  towns;  as  early  as  September  20,000  re 
sponded  to  an  alarm.  This  was  the  situation  that  Burke 
"dared  not  name,"  for  the  only  proper  name  was 
"armed  rebellion." 

So  very  threatening  was  the  aspect  of  American 
affairs  that  Lord  North  once  more  tried  to  appear 
friendly  by  offering  on  February  20,  1775,  a  resolution 
to  this  effect :  "  If  any  colony  makes  such  a  contribu 
tion  to  the  empire  as  meets  the  approval  of  Parliament, 


36  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

it  shall  be  free  from  all  taxation."  This  was  the 
" project"  that  Burke  refers  to  in  paragraphs  10-13 
and  objects  to  in  paragraphs  123-132.  The  futile 
little  piece  of  hypocrisy  is  interesting  as  being  the  last 
conciliatory  measure  that  passed  in  Parliament. 
Burke  made  the  most  of  it  on  March  22,  when  he  pro 
posed  his  own  honest  and  statesmanlike  resolutions 
for  real  conciliation.  But  all  his  wisdom  and  brilliance 
and  fervor  were  in  vain.  He  might  as  well  have  tried 
to  persuade  a  counting-machine,  for  the  House  of 
Commons  had  become  simply  a  machine  for  recording 
the  King 's  will.  It  counted  with  mechanical  indiffer 
ence  an  adverse  vote  of  270  to  78. 

Twenty-seven  days  later  the  battle  of  Lexington  was 
fought.  A  German  king  had  finally  inflamed  his  sub 
jects  against  each  other  and  was  profoundly  grateful 
that  a  civil  war  had  begun.  For  fifteen  years  he  had 
built  up  his  power  at  home  by  inciting  quarrels  among 
statesmen ;  he  now  had  brought  all  his  statesmen  to 
fight  against  all  his  colonists ;  he  thought  his  prospects 
for  despotic  power  were  very  bright.  And  so  they 
were  if  his  troops  could  win  in  the  civil  war  that  he 
had  fomented  between  his  people  in  England  and  his 
people  in  America. 

ENGLISH  FREEDOM  TRIUMPHS 

So  the  American  Kevolution  was,  as  our  American 
historian  Fiske  has  so  well  shown,  a  contest  between 
German  tyranny  and  English  freedom,  although 
neither  party  in  the  struggle  knew  that  this  was  the 


INTRODUCTION  37 

issue.  After  war  has  been  declared,  people  cannot 
examine  causes;  they  have  to  fight. 

Through  the  eight  years  of  the  Revolution  North 
continued  to  be  a  servile  minister  to  his  German  mas 
ter,  and  did  not  quail  until  he  received  the  fearful 
news  that  Cornwallis  had  surrendered.  Then  this 
even-tempered  humorist  staggered  as  if  he  had  been 
shot,  exclaiming,  "Oh,  God!  it's  all  over!" 

His  words  had  a  wider  meaning  than  he  knew.  Not 
only  was  it  all  over  with  a  German  king's  effort  to 
destroy  English  freedom  in  America,  but  it  was  all 
over  with  his  effort  to  destroy  English  freedom  in 
England.  North  resigned,  and  from  that  day  the 
King 's  power  for  despotism  was  at  an  end.  Within  two 
years  North  was  in  opposition  to  the  King,  in  a  min 
istry  that  was  headed  by  the  son  of  that  Pitt  whom 
Englishmen  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  had  so  ad 
mired  and  trusted.  And  the  son  deserved  the  same 
trust  for  the  same  reason :  he  represented  that  public 
opinion  which  demanded  a  government  by  and  for  the 
people.  When  our  new-born  states  were  forming 
themselves  into  a  republic,  a  new  kind  of  House  of 
Commons  was  elected  in  England — a  kind  that  was 
responsive  to  public  opinion. 

To  be  sure,  the  millennium  had  not  come.  Just  as 
English  freedom  had  to  develop  slowly  through  the 
preceding  hundred  and  fifty  years,  against  constant 
difficulties  and  setbacks,  so  it  was  retarded  during  the 
century  following,  especially  after  1792,  by  a  reaction 
from  the  horrible  excesses  of  the  French  Revolution. 
But  progress  came  with  time.  Parliament  has  grown 


38  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

steadily  more  responsive  to  the  will  of  the  people, 
until  now  the  English  government  is  in  some  ways 
more  democratic  than  our  own. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  this  growth  of  democracy  in  England, 
in  spite  of  the  similarity  of  our  national  ideals,  in 
spite  of  our  common  aim  and  faith  and  common  blood, 
the  animosity  caused  by  the  Revolution  has  never  been 
wholly  removed.  That  civil  war  produced  a  deep  and 
lasting  alienation,  just  as  our  American  Civil  War 
caused  hatreds  that  have  not  entirely  died,  even  among 
a  people  living  in  a  Union  of  neighboring  states.  The 
distrust  roused  by  the  Revolution  was  perpetuated 
for  a  hundred  and  thirty  years.  Englishmen  have 
made  fun  of  us,  and  our  school  histories  have  spoken 
bitterly  of  them;  national  antipathies  have  been 
strong. 

But  it  needed  only  the  common  peril  of  1914  to 
show  both  countries  how  deep  was  our  mutual  desire 
for  English  freedom.  In  1918  an  English  editor, 
speaking  to  American  newspaper  men  in  Paris,  could 
declare  with  truth:  "A  warm  friendship  has  sprung 
up  between  the  British  and  the  American  soldiers  who 
have  fought  together  at  the  front. ' '  And  our  Ameri 
can  Admiral  Rodman  could  say  with  truth,  when  he 
returned  from  England,  "Our  mutual  association  in 
this  war's  work  has  drawn  us  so  close  together  that 
in  the  Grand  Fleet  it  was  instrumental  in  ripening 
friendship  into  brotherhood."  Americans  can  realize 
now  the  truth  of  what  the  English  historian  Green 
wrote,  when  the  population  of  the  United  States  was 
only  forty  million :  *  *  If  American  independence  crip- 


INTRODUCTION  39 

pled  for  a  while  the  supremacy  of  the  English  nation, 
it  founded  the  supremacy  of  the  English  race.  *  .  . 
Every  year  proves  more  clearly  that  in  spirit  the 
English  People  is  one.  The  distance  that  parted  Eng 
land  from  America  lessens  every  day.  The  ties  that 
unite  them  grow  every  day  stronger.  "...  In  the 
centuries  that  lie  before  us  the  primacy  of  the  world 
will  lie  with  the  English  people. " 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON 
CONCILIATION  WITH   AMERICA1 

1.  I  hope,  Sir,  that  notwithstanding  the  austerity 
of  the  Chair  your  good  nature  will  incline  you  to  some 
degree  of  indulgence  towards  human  frailty.  You 
will  not  think  it  unnatural  that  those  who  have  an 
object  depending  which  strongly  engages  their  hopes 
and  fears  should  be  somewhat  inclined  to  superstition. 
As  I  came  into  the  House  full  of  anxiety  about  the 
event  of  my  motion,  I  found,  to  my  infinite  surprise, 
that  the  grand  penal  bill,  by  which  we  had  passed 
sentence  on  the  trade  and  sustenance  of  America,  is  to 
be  returned  to  us  from  the  other  House.  I  do  confess, 
I  could  not  help  looking  on  this  event  as  a  fortunate 
omen.  I  look  upon  it  as  a  sort  of  providential  favor, 
by  which  we  are  put  once  more  in  possession  of  our 
deliberative  capacity,  upon  a  business  so  very  ques 
tionable  in  its  nature,  so  very  uncertain  in  its  issue. 
By  the  return  of  this  bill,  which  seemed  to  have  taken 
its  flight  for  ever,  we  are  at  this  very  instant  nearly 
as  free  to  choose  a  plan  for  our  American  government 
as  we  were  on  the  first  day  of  the  session.  If,  Sir, 
we  incline  to  the  side  of  conciliation,  we  are  not  at  all 
embarrassed — unless  we  please  to  make  ourselves  so — 
by  any  incongruous  mixture  of  coercion  and  restraint. 

^he  speech  will  be  more  interesting  to  the  student  if  he  reads 
first  " Where  Burke  Spoke,"  pp.  284-285. 

41 


42  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

We  are  therefore  called  upon,  as  it  were  by  a  superior 
warning  voice,  again  to  attend  to  America,  to  attend 
to  the  whole  of  it  together,  and  to  review  the  subject 
with  an  unusual  degree  of  care  and  calmness. 

2.  Surely  it  is  an  awful  subject,  or  there  is  none  so 
on  this  side  of  the  grave.    When  I  first  had  the  honor 
of  a  seat  in  this  House,  the  affairs  of  that  continent 
pressed  themselves  upon  us  as  the  most  important  and 
most  delicate  object  of  parliamentary  attention.    My 
little  share  in  this  great  deliberation  oppressed  me.    I 
found  myself  a  partaker  in  a  very  high  trust ;  and  hav 
ing  no  sort  of  reason  to  rely  on  the  strength  of  my 
natural  abilities  for  the  proper  execution  of  that  trust, 
I  was  obliged  to  take  more  than  common  pains  to  in 
struct   myself   in   everything   which   relates   to    our 
colonies..    I  was  not  less  under  the  necessity  of  forming 
some  fixed  ideas  concerning  the  general  policy  of  the 
British  Empire.    Something  of  this  sort  seemed  to  be 
indispensable,  in  order,  amidst  so  vast  a  fluctuation  of 
passions  and  opinions,  to  concenter  my  thoughts,  to 
ballast  my  conduct,  to  preserve  me  from  being  blown 
about  by  every  wind  of  fashionable  doctrine.    I  really 
did  not  think  it  safe  or  manly  to  have  fresh  principles 
to  seek  upon  every  fresh  mail  which  should  arrive  from 
America. 

3.  At  that  period  I  had  the  fortune  to  find  myself 
in  perfect  concurrence  with  a  large  majority  in  this 
House.    Bowing  under  that  high  authority,  and  pene 
trated  with  the  sharpness  and  strength  of  that  early 
impression,  I  have  continued  ever  since,  without  the 
least  deviation,  in  my  original  sentiments.     Whether 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  43 

this  be  owing  to  an  obstinate  perseverance  in  error,  or 
to  a  religious  adherence  to  what  appears  to  me  truth 
and  reason,  it  is  in  your  equity  to  judge. 

4.  Sir,  Parliament,  having  an  enlarged  view  of 
objects,   made,   during  this  interval,   more  frequent 
changes  in  their  sentiments  and  their  conduct  than, 
could  be  justified  in  a  particular  person  upon  the  con 
tracted  scale  of  private  information.     But  though  I 
do  not  hazard  anything  approaching  to  censure  on  the 
motives  of  former  Parliaments  to  all  those  alterations, 
one  fact  is  undoubted — that  under  them  the  state  of 
America  has  been  kept  in  continual  agitation.    Every 
thing  administered  as  remedy  to  the  public  complaint, 
if  it  did  not  produce,  was  at  least  followed  by,  an 
heightening  of  the  distemper;  until,  by  a  variety  of 
experiments,  that  important  country  has  been  brought 
into  her  present  situation — a  situation  which  I  will  not 
miscall,  which  I  dare  not  name,  which  I  scarcely  know 
how  to  comprehend  in  the  terms  of  any  description. 

5.  In  this  posture,  Sir,  things  stood  at  the  begin 
ning  of  the  session.    About  that  time  a  worthy  member 
of  great  parliamentary  experience,  who,  in  the  year 
1766,  filled  the  chair  of  the  American  Committee  with 
much  ability,  took  me  aside,  and,  lamenting  the  present 
aspect  of  our  politics,  told  me  things  were  come  to 
such  a  pass  that  our  former  methods  of  proceeding  in 
the  House  would  be  no*  longer  tolerated;  that  the 
public  tribunal — never  too  indulgent  to  a  long  and 
unsuccessful   opposition — would  now   scrutinize  our 
conduct  with  unusual  severity;  that  the  very  vicissi 
tudes  and  shiftings  of  ministerial  measures,  instead  of 


46  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

You  will  see  it  just  as  it  is,  and  you  will  treat  it  just 
as  it  deserves. 

9.  The  proposition  is  peace.    Not  peace  through 
the  medium  of  war ;  not  peace  to  be  hunted  through  the 
labyrinth  of  intricate  and  endless  negotiations;  not 
peace  to  arise  out  of  universal  discord,  fomented  from 
principle  in  all  parts  of  the  empire;  not  peace  to  de 
pend  on  the  juridical  determination  of  perplexing 
questions,  or  the  precise  marking  the  shadowy  boun 
daries  of  a  complex  government.    It  is  simple  peace, 
sought  in  its  natural  course,   and  in  its   ordinary 
haunts — it  is  peace  sought  in  the  spirit  of  peace,  and 
laid  in  principles  purely  pacific.    I  propose,  by  remov 
ing  the  ground  of  the  difference,  and  by  restoring  the 
former  unsuspecting  confidence  of  the  colonies  in  the 
mother  country,  to  give  permanent  satisfaction  to  your 
people,  and — far  from  a  scheme  of  ruling  by  discord — 
to  reconcile  them  to  each  other  in  the  same  act,  and 
by  the  bond  of  the  very  same  interest,  which  reconciles 
them  to  British  government. 

10.  My  idea  is  nothing  more.    Refined  policy  ever 
has  been  the  parent  of  confusion,  and  ever  will  be  so, 
as  long  as  the  world  endures.    Plain  good  intention, 
which  Is  as  easily  discovered  at  the  first  view  as  fraud 
is  surely  detected  at  last,  is,  let  me  say,  of  no  mean 
force  in  the  government  of  mankind.     Genuine  sim 
plicity  of  heart  is  a  healing  and  cementing  principle. 
My  plan,  therefore,  being  formed  upon  the  most  simple 
grounds  imaginable,  may  disappoint  some  people  when 
they  hear  it.    It  has  nothing  to  recommend  it  to  the 
pruriency  of  curious  ears.    There  is  nothing  at  all  new 


BUKKE'S  SPEECH  OX  CONCILIATION  47 

and  captivating  in  it.  It  has  nothing  of  the  splendor 
of  the  project  which  has  been  lately  laid  upon  your 
table  by  the  noble  lord  in  the  blue  ribbon.  It  does  not 
propose  to  fill  your  lobby  with  squabbling  colony 
agents,  who  will  require  the  interposition  of  your  mace 
at  every  instant,  to  keep  the  peace  amongst  them.  It 
does  not  institute  a  magnificent  auction  of  finance, 
where  captivated  provinces  come  to  general  ransom 
by  bidding  against  each  other,  until  you  knock  down 
the  hammer,  and  determine  a  proportion  of  payments 
beyond  all  the  powers  of  algebra  to  equalize  and  settle. 

11.  The  plan  which  I  shall  presume  to  suggest  de 
rives,  however,  one  great  advantage  from  the  proposi 
tion  and  registry  of  that  noble  lord's  project.     The 
idea  of  conciliation  is  admissible.     First,  the  House, 
in  accepting  the  resolution  moved  by  the  noble  lord, 
has  admitted,  notwithstanding  the  menacing  front  of 
our  address,  notwithstanding  our  heavy  bill  of  pains 
and  penalties,  that  we  do  not  think  ourselves  precluded 
from  all  ideas  of  free  grace  and  bounty. 

12.  The  House  has  gone  farther :   it  has  declared 
conciliation  admissible,  previous  to  any  submission  on 
the  part  of  America.     It  has  even  shot  a  good  deal 
beyond  that  mark,  and  has  admitted  that  the  com 
plaints  of  our  former  mode  of  exerting  the  right  of 
taxation  were  not  wholly  unfounded.    That  right  thus 
exerted  is  allowed  to  have  had  something  reprehensible 
in  it,  something  unwise  or  something  grievous,  since, 
in  the  midst  of  our  heat  and  resentment,  we  of  our 
selves  have  proposed  a  capital   alteration;   and,   in 
order  to  get  rid  of  what  seemed  so  very  exceptionable, 


48  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

have  instituted  a  mode  that  is  altogether  new — one 
that  is,  indeed,  wholly  alien  from  all  the  ancient 
methods  and  forms  of  Parliament. 

13.  The    principle   of    this   proceeding   is    large 
enough  for  my  purpose.    The  means  proposed  by  the 
noble  lord  for  carrying  his  ideas  into  execution  I  think, 
indeed,  are  very  indifferently  suited  to  the  end,  and 
this  I  shall  endeavor  to  show  you  before  I  sit  down. 
But,  for  the  present,  I  take  my  ground  on  the  admitted 
principle.    I  mean  to  give  peace.    Peace  implies  recon 
ciliation;  and,  where  there  has  been  a  material  dis 
pute,  reconciliation  does  in  a  manner  always  imply 
concession  on  the  one  part  or  on  the  other.     In  this 
state  of  things  I  make  no  difficulty  in  affirming  that 
the  proposal  ought  to  originate  from  us.    Great  and 
acknowledged  force  is  not  impaired,  either  in  effect  or 
in  opinion,  by  an  unwillingness  to  exert  itself.     The 
superior  power  may  offer  peace  with  honor  and  with 
safety.    Such  an  offer  from  such  a  power  will  be  at 
tributed  to  magnanimity.    But  the  concessions  of  the 
weak  are  the  concessions  of  fear.    When  such  a  one  is 
disarmed,  he  is  wholly  at  the  mercy  of  his  superior; 
and  he  loses  forever  that  time  and  those  chances, 
which,  as  they  happen  to  all  men,  are  the  strength  and 
resources  of  all  inferior  power. 

14.  The  capital  leading  questions  on  which  you 
must  this  day  decide  are  these  two:    first,  whether 
you  ought  to  concede ;  and,  secondly,  what  your  con 
cession  ought  to  be.    On  the  first  of  these  questions  we 
have  gained — as  I  have  just  taken  the  liberty  of  ob 
serving  to  you — some  ground.    But  I  am  sensible  that 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  49 

a  good  deal  more  is  still  to  be  done.  Indeed,  Sir,  to 
enable  us  to  determine  both  on  the  one  and  the  other 
of  these  great  questions  with  a  firm  and  precise  judg 
ment,  I  think  it  may,  be  necessary  to  consider  distinctly 
the  true  nature  and  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the 
object  which  we  have  before  us.  Because,  after  all  our 
struggle,  whether  we  will  or  not,  we  must  govern  Amer 
ica  according  to  t^at  nature  and  to  those  circum 
stances,  and  not  according  to  our  own  imaginations, 
not  according  to  abstract  ideas  of  right ;  by  no  means 
according  to  mere  general  theories  of  government,  the 
resort  to  which  appears  to  me,  in  our  present  situation, 
no  better  than  arrant  trifling.  I  shall  therefore  en 
deavor,  with  your  leave,  to  lay  before  you  some  of  the 
most  material  of  these  circumstances  in  as  full  and  as 
clear  a  manner  as  I  am  able  to  state  them. 

15.  The  first  thing  that  we  have  to  consider  with 
regard  to  the  nature  of  the  object  is  the  number  of 
people  in  the  colonies.  I  have  taken  for  some  years  a 
good  deal  of  pains  on  that  point.  I  can  by  no  calcula 
tion  justify  myself  in  placing  the  number  below  two 
millions  of  inhabitants  of  our  own  European  blood 
and  color ;  besides  at  least  500,000  others,  who  form  no 
inconsiderable  part  of  the  strength  and  opulence  of  the 
whole.  This,  Sir,  is,  I  believe,  about  the  true  number. 
There  is  no  occasion  to  exaggerate  where  plain  truth 
is  of  so  much  weight  and  importance.  But  whether  I 
put  the  present  numbers  too  high  or  too  low  is  a  matter 
of  little  moment.  Such  is  the  strength  with  which 
population  shoots  in  that  part  of  the  world  that,  state 
the  numbers  as  high  as  we  will,  whilst  the  dispute  con- 


50  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

tinues,  the  exaggeration  ends.  Whilst  we  are  discuss 
ing  any  given  magnitude,  they  are  grown  to  it.  Whilst 
we  spend  our  time  in  deliberating  on  the  mode  of  gov 
erning  two  millions,  we  shall  find  we  have  millions 
more  to  manage.  Your  children  do  not  grow  faster 
from  infancy  to  manhood  than  they  spread  from  fami 
lies  to  communities,  and  from  villages  to  nations. 

16.  I  put  this  consideration  of  the  present  and  the 
growing  numbers  in  the  front  of  our  deliberation; 
because,  Sir,  this  consideration  will  make  it  evident  to 
a  blunter  discernment  than  yours,  that  no  partial, 
narrow,  contracted,  pinched,  occasional  system  will  be 
at  all  suitable  to  such  an  object.    It  will  show  you  that 
it  is  not  to  be  considered  as  one  of  those  minima  which 
are  out  of  the  eye  and  consideration  of  the  law ;  not  a 
paltry  excrescence  of  the  state ;  not  a  mean  dependent, 
who  may  be  neglected  with  little  damage,  and  pro 
voked  with  little  danger.    It  will  prove  that  some  de 
gree  of  care  and  caution  is  required  in  the  handling 
such  an  object;  it  will  show  that  you  ought  not,  in 
reason,  to  trifle  with  so  large  a  mass  of  the  interests 
and  feelings  of  the  human  race.    You  could  at  no  time 
do  so  without  guilt;  and  be  assured  you  will  not  be 
able  to  do  it  long  with  impunity. 

17.  But  the  population  of  this  country,  the  great 
and  growing  population,  though  a  very  important 
consideration,  will  lose  much  of  its  weight  if  not  com 
bined  with  other  circumstances.     The  commerce  of 
your  colonies  is  out  of  all  proportion  beyond  the  num 
bers  of  the  people.     This  ground  of  their  commerce 
indeed  has  been  trod  some  days  ago,  and  with  great 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  51 

ability,  by  a  distinguished  person,  at  your  bar.  This 
gentleman,  after  thirty-five  years — it  is  so  long  since 
he  first  appeared  at  the  same  place  to  plead  for  the 
commerce  of  Great  Britain — has  come  again  before 
you  to  plead  the  same  cause,  without  any  other  effect 
of  time  than  that,  to  the  fire  of  imagination  and  extent 
of  erudition  which  even  then  marked  him  as  one  of  the 
first  literary  characters  of  his  age,  he  has  added  a 
consummate  knowledge  in  the  commercial  interest  of 
his  country,  formed  by  a  long  course  of  enlightened 
and  discriminating  experience. 

18.  Sir,  I  should  be  inexcusable  in  coming  after 
such  a  person  with  any  detail,  if  a  great  part  of  the 
members  who  now  fill  the  House  had  not  the  misfor 
tune  to  be  absent  when  he  appeared  at  your  bar.    Be 
sides,  Sir,  I  propose  to  take  the  matter  at  periods  of 
time  somewhat  different  from  his.    There  is,  if  I  mis 
take  not,  a  point  of  view  from  whence  if  you  will  look 
at  this  subject,  it  is  impossible  that  it  should  not  make 
an  impression  upon  you. 

19.  I  have  in  my  hand  two  accounts :   one  a  com 
parative  state  of  the  export  trade  of  England  to  its 
colonies,  as  it  stood  in  the  year  1704,  and  as  it  stood  in 
the  year  1772 ;  the  other  a  state  of  the  export  trade  of 
this  country  to  its  colonies  alone,  as  it  stood  in  1772, 
compared  with  the  whole  trade  of  England  to  all  parts 
of  the  world — the  colonies  included — in  the  year  1704. 
They  are  from  good  vouchers :  the  latter  period  from 
the  accounts  on  your  table,  the  earlier  from  an  original 
manuscript  of  Davenant,  who  first  established  the  In 
spector-General's  office,  which  has  been  ever  since  his 


52  BUEKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

time  so  abundant  a  source  of  parliamentary  informa 
tion. 

20.  The  export  trade  to  the  colonies  consists  of 
three  great  branches :  the  African,  which,  terminating 
almost  wholly  in  the  colonies,  must  be  put  to  the  ac 
count  of  their  commerce;  the  West  Indian;  and  the 
North  American.    All  these  are  so  interwoven  that  the 
attempt  to  separate  them  would  tear  to  pieces  the  con 
texture  of  the  whole;  and,  if  not  entirely  destroy, 
would  very  much  depreciate  the  value  of  all  the  parts. 
I  therefore  consider  these  three  denominations  to  be, 
what  in  effect  they  are,  one  trade. 

21.  The  trade  to  the  colonies,  taken  on  the  export 
side,  at  the  beginning  of  this  century — that  is,  in  the 
year  1704 — stood  thus : 

Exports  to  North  America  and  the 

West  Indies £483,265 

To  Africa 86,665 

£569,930 

22.  In  the  year  1772,  which  I  take  as  a  middle 
year  between  the  highest  and  lowest  of  those  lately 
laid  on  your  table,  the  account  was  as  follows : 

To  North  America  and  the  West 

Indies  . £4,791,734 

To  Africa 866,398 

To  which  if  you  add  the  export 
trade  from  Scotland,  which 
had  in  1704  no  existence  .  .  364,000 

£6,022,132 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  OX  CONCILIATION  53 

23.  From  five  hundred  and  odd  thousands  it  has 
grown  to  six  millions.  It  has  increased  no  less  than 
twelvefold.  This  is  the  state  of  the  colony  trade,  as 
compared  with  itself  at  these  two  periods,  within  this 
century ;  and  this  is  matter  for  meditation.  But  this 
is  not  all.  Examine  my  second  account.  See  how  the 
export  trade  to  the  colonies  alone  in  1772  stood  in  the 
other  point  of  view — that  is,  as  compared  to  the  whole 
trade  of  England  in  1704. 

The  whole  export  trade  of  Eng 
land,  including  that  to  the 
colonies,  in  1704 £6,509,000 

Export  to  the  colonies  alone,  in 

1772 6,022,000 


Difference  £    487,000 

24.  The  trade  with  America  alone  is  now  within 
less  than  £500,000  of  being  equal  to  what  this  great 
commercial  nation,  England,  carried  on  at  the  begin 
ning  of  this  century  with  the  whole  world !  If  I  had 
taken  the  largest  year  of  those  on  your  table,  it  would 
rather  have  exceeded.  But,  it  will  be  said,  is  not  this 
American  trade  an  unnatural  protuberance,  that  has 
drawn  the  juices  from  the  rest  of  the  body?  The 
reverse.  It  is  the  very  food  that  has  nourished  every 
other  part  into  its  present  magnitude.  Our  general 
trade  has  been  greatly  augmented,  and  augmented 
more  or  less  in  almost  every  part  to  which  it  ever  ex 
tended — but  with  this  material  difference,  that  of  the 
six  millions  which  in  the  beginning  of  the  century 


54  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

constituted  the  whole  mass  of  our  export  commerce, 
the  colony  trade  was  but  one  twelfth  part;  it  is  now 
(as  a  part  of  sixteen  millions)  considerably  more  than 
a  third  of  the  whole.  This  is  the  relative  proportion 
of  the  importance  of  the  colonies  at  these  two  periods ; 
and  all  reasoning  concerning  our  mode  of  treating 
them  must  have  this  proportion  as  its  basis,  or  it  is  a 
reasoning  weak,  rotten,  and  sophistical. 

25.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  cannot  prevail  on  myself  to 
hurry  over  this  great  consideration.  It  is  good  for 
us  to  be  here.  We  stand  where  we  have  an  immense 
view  of  what  is,  and  what  is  past.  Clouds,  indeed,  and 
darkness  rest  upon  the  future.  Let  us,  however,  be 
fore  we  descend  from  this  noble  eminence,  reflect  that 
this  growth  of  our  national  prosperity  has  happened 
within  the  short  period  of  the  life  of  man.  It  has 
happened  within  sixty-eight  years.  There  are  those 
alive  whose  memory  might  touch  the  two  extremities. 
For  instance,  my  Lord  Bathurst  might  remember  all 
the  stages  of  the  progress.  He  was  in  1704  of  an  age 
at  least  to  be  made  to  comprehend  such  things.  He 
was  then  old  enough 

acta  parentum 
Jam  legere,  et  quse  sit  poterit  cognoscere  virtus. 

Suppose,  Sir,  that  the  angel  of  this  auspicious  youth, 
foreseeing  the  many  virtues  which  made  him  one  of 
the  most  amiable,  as  he  is  one  of  the  most  fortunate, 
men  of  his  age,  had  opened  to  him  in  vision  that 
when,  in  the  fourth  generation,  the  third  prince  of  the 
House  of  Brunswick  had  sat  twelve  years  on  the  throne 
of  that  nation,  which — by  the  happy  issue  of  moderate 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  55 

and  healing  counsels — was  to  be  made  Great  Britain, 
he  should  see  his  son,  Lord  Chancellor  of  England, 
turn  back  the  current  of  hereditary  dignity  to  its 
fountain,  and  raise  him  to  a  higher  rank  of  peerage, 
whilst  he  enriched  the  family  with  a  new  one — if, 
amidst  these  bright  and  happy  scenes  of  domestic 
honor  and  prosperity,  that  angel  should  have  drawn 
up  the  curtain,  and  unfolded  the  rising  glories  of  his 
country,  and,  whilst  he  was  gazing  with  admiration 
on  the  then  commercial  grandeur  of  England,  the 
Genius  should  point  out  to  him  a  little  speck,  scarce 
visible  in  the  mass  of  the  national  interest,  a  small 
seminal  principle  rather  than  a  formed  body,  and 
should  tell  him — ' '  Young  man,  there  is  America,  which 
at  this  day  serves  for  little  more  than  to  amuse  you 
with  stories  of  savage  men  and  uncouth  manners,  yet 
shall,  before  you  taste  of  death,  show  itself  equal  to 
the  whole  of  that  commerce  which  now  attracts  the 
envy  of  the  world.  Whatever  England  has  been  grow 
ing  to  by  a  progressive  increase  of  improvement, 
brought  in  by  varieties  of  people,  by  succession  of 
civilizing  conquests  and  civilizing  settlements  in  a 
series  of  seventeen  hundred  years,  you  shall  see  as 
much  added  to  her  by  America  in  the  course  of  a 
single  life ! ' '  If  this  state  of  his  country  had  been 
foretold  to  him,  would  it  not  require  all  the  sanguine 
credulity  of  youth,  and  all  the  fervid  glow  of  enthu 
siasm,  to  make  him  believe  it?  Fortunate  man,  he 
has  lived  to  see  it !  Fortunate  indeed,  if  he  lives  to  see 
nothing  that  shall  vary  the  prospect,  and  cloud  the 
setting  of  his  day! 


56  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

..... 

26.  Excuse  me,  Sir,  if,  turning  from  such  thoughts, 
I  resume  this  comparative  view  once  more.    You  have 
seen  it  on  a  large  scale ;  look  at  it  on  a  small  one.    I 
will  point  out  to  your  attention  a  particular  instance 
of  it  in  the  single  Province  of  Pennsylvania.    In  the 
year  1704  that  Province  called  for  £11,459  in  value 
of  your  commodities,  native  and  foreign.     This  was 
the  whole.     What  did  it  demand  in  1772?     Why, 
nearly  fifty  times  as  much ;  for  in  that  year  the  export 
to  Pennsylvania  was  £507,909 — nearly  equal  to  the 
export  to  all  the  colonies  together  in  the  first  period. 

27.  I  choose,  Sir,  to  enter  into  these  minute  and 
particular  details,  because  generalities,  which  in  all 
other  cases  are  apt  to  heighten  and  raise  the  subject, 
have  here  a  tendency  to  sink  it.    When  we  speak  of 
the  commerce  with  our  colonies,  fiction  lags  after 
truth,  invention  is  unfruitful,  and  imagination  cold 
and  barren. 

28.  So  far,  Sir,  as  to  the  importance  of  the  object, 
in  the  view  of  its  commerce,  as  concerned  in  the  ex 
ports  from  England.    If  I  were  to  detail  the  imports, 
I  could  show  how  many  enjoyments  they  procure 
which  deceive  the  burthen  of  life ;  how  many  materials 
which  invigorate  the  springs  of  national  industry,  and 
extend  and  animate  every  part  of  our  foreign  and 
domestic  commerce.    This  would  be  a  curious  subject 
indeed — but  I  must  prescribe  bounds  to  myself  in  a 
matter  so  vast  and  various. 

29.  I  pass  therefore  to  the  colonies  in  another 
point  of  view — their   agriculture.     This  they  have 
prosecuted  with  such  a  spirit  that,  besides  feeding 


BUBKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  57 

plentifully  their  own  growing  multitude,  their  annual 
export  of  grain,  comprehending  rice,  has  some  years 
ago  exceeded  a  million  in  value.  Of  their  last  harvest, 
I  am  persuaded  they  will  export  much  more.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  century  some  of  these  colonies  im 
ported  corn  from  the  mother  country.  For  some  time 
past,  the  Old  World  has  been  fed  from  the  New.  The 
scarcity  which  you  have  felt  would  have  been  a  desolat 
ing  famine,  if  this  child  of  your  old  age,  with  a  true 
filial  piety,  with  a  Roman  charity,  had  not  put  the  full 
breast  of  its  youthful  exuberance  to  the  mouth  of  its 
exhausted  parent. 

30.  As  to  the  wealth  which  the  colonies  have 
drawn  from  the  sea  by  their  fisheries,  you  had  all  that 
matter  fully  opened  at  your  bar.  You  surely  thought 
these  acquisitions  of  value,  for  they  seemed  even  to 
excite  your  envy;  and  yet  the  spirit  by  which  that 
enterprising  employment  has  been  exercised  ought 
rather,  in  my  opinion,  to  have  raised  your  esteem  and 
admiration.  And  pray,  Sir,  what  in  the  world  is  equal 
to  it  •?  Pass  by  the  other  parts,  and  look  at  the  manner 
in  which  the  people  of  New  England  have  of  late  car 
ried  on  the  whale  fishery.  Whilst  we  follow  them 
among  the  tumbling  mountains  of  ice,  and  behold  them 
penetrating  into  the  deepest  frozen  recesses  of  Hud 
son  's  Bay  and  Davis '  Straits,  whilst  we  are  looking  for 
them  beneath  the  Arctic  Circle,  we  hear  that  they  have 
pierced  into  the  opposite  region  of  polar  cold,  that 
they  are  at  the  antipodes,  and  engaged  under  the 
frozen  Serpent  of  the  South.  Falkland  Island,  which 
seemed  too  remote  and  romantic  an  object  for  the 


58  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

grasp  of  national  ambition,  is  but  a  stage  and  resting- 
place  in  the  progress  of  their  victorious  industry.  Nor 
is  the  equinoctial  heat  more  discouraging  to  them  than 
the  accumulated  winter  of  both  the  poles.  We  know 
that  whilst  some  of  them  draw  the  line  and  strike  the 
harpoon  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  others  run  the  longi 
tude  and  pursue  their  gigantic  game  along  the  coast 
of  Brazil.  No  sea  but  what  is  vexed  by  their  fisheries ; 
no  climate  that  is  not  witness  to  their  toils.  Neither 
the  perseverance  of  Holland,  nor  the  activity  of 
France,  nor  the  dextrous  and  firm  sagacity  of  English 
enterprise,  ever  carried  this  most  perilous  mode  of 
hardy  industry  to  the  extent  to  which  it  has  been 
pushed  by  this  recent  people — a  people  who  are  still, 
as  it  were,  but  in  the  gristle,  and  not  yet  hardened  into, 
the  bone  of  manhood. 

31.  When  I  contemplate  these  things;  when  I 
know  that  the  colonies  in  general  owe  little  or  nothing 
to  any  care  of  ours,  and  that  they  are  not  squeezed  into 
this  happy  form  by  the  constraints  of  watchful  and 
suspicious  government,  but  that,  through  a  wise  and 
salutary  neglect,  a  generous  nature  has  been  suffered 
to  take  her  own  way  to  perfection ;  when  I  reflect  upon 
these  effects,  when  I  see  how  profitable  they  have  been 
to  us,  I  feel  all  the  pride  of  power  sink,  and  all  pre 
sumption  in  the  wisdom  of  human  contrivances  melt 
and  die  away  within  me.    My  rigor  relents.    I  pardon 
something  to  the  spirit  of  liberty. 

32.  I  am  sensible,  Sir,  that  all  which  I  have  as 
serted  in  my  detail  is  admitted  in  the  gross ;  but  that 
quite  a  different  conclusion  is  drawn  from  it.    Amer- 


BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  59 

ica,  gentlemen  say,  is  a  noble  object.  It  is  an  object 
well  worth  fighting  for.  Certainly  it  is,  if  fighting  a 
people  be  the  best  way  of  gaining  them.  Gentlemen 
in  this  respect  will  be  led  to  their  choice  of  means  by 
their  complexions  and  their  habits.  Those  who  under 
stand  the  military  art  will  of  course  have  some  predi 
lection  for  it.  Those  who  wield  the  thunder  of  the 
state  may  have  more  confidence  in  the  efficacy  of  arms. 
But  I  confess,  possibly  for  want  of  this  knowledge,  my 
opinion  is  much  more  in  favor  of  prudent  management 
than  of  force ;  considering  force  not  as  an  odious,  but 
a  feeble  instrument,  for  preserving  a  people  so  numer 
ous,  so  active,  so  growing,  so  spirited  as  this,  in  a  profit 
able  and  subordinate  connection  with  us. 

33.  First,  Sir,  permit  me  to  observe  that  the  use 
of  force  alone  is  but  temporary.    It  may  subdue  for  a 
moment,  but  it  does  not  remove  the  necessity  of  sub 
duing  again;  and  a  nation  is  not  governed  which  is 
perpetually  to  be  conquered. 

34.  My  next  objection  is  its  uncertainty.    Terror 
is  not  always  the  effect  of  force ;  and  an  armament  is 
not  a  victory.    If  you  do  not  succeed,  you  are  without 
resource :  for,  conciliation  failing,  force  remains ;  but, 
force  failing,  no  further  hope  of  reconciliation  is  left. 
Power  and  authority  are  sometimes  bought  by  kind 
ness,  but  they  can  never  be  begged  as  alms  by  an  im 
poverished  and  defeated  violence. 

35.  A  further  objection  to  force  is  that  you  impair 
the  object  by  your  very  endeavors  to  preserve  it.    The 
thing  you  fought  for  is  not  the  thing  which  you  re 
cover,  but  depreciated,  sunk,  wasted,  and  consumed 


6Q  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

in  the  contest.  Nothing  less  will  content  me  than  whole 
America.  I  do  not  choose  to  consume  its  strength 
along  with  our  own,  because  in  all  parts  it  is  the 
British  strength  that  I  consume.  I  do  not  choose  to 
be  caught  by  a  foreign  enemy  at  the  end  of  this  ex 
hausting  conflict,  and  still  less  in  the  midst  of  it.  I 
may  escape,  but  I  can  make  no  insurance  against  such 
an  event.  Let  me  add  that  I  do  not  choose  wholly 
to  break  the  American  spirit,  because  it  is  the  spirit 
that  has  made  the  country. 

36.  Lastly,  we  have  no  sort  of  experience  in  favor 
of  force  as  an  instrument  in  the  rule  of  our  colonies. 
Their  growth  and  their  utility  has  been  owing  to  meth 
ods  altogether  different.    Our  ancient  indulgence  has 
been  said  to  be  pursued  to  a  fault.    It  may  be  so.    But 
we  know,  if  feeling  is  evidence,  that  our  fault  was  more 
tolerable  than  our  attempt  to  mend  it,  and  our  sin  far 
more  salutary  than  our  penitence. 

37.  These,  Sir,  are  my  reasons  for  not  entertaining 
that  high  opinion  of  untried  force  by  which  many 
gentlemen,  for  whose  sentiments  in  other  particulars 
I  have  great  respect,  seem  to  be  so  greatly  captivated. 
But  there  is  still  behind  a  third  consideration  concern 
ing  this  object,  which  serves  to  determine  my  opinion 
on  the  sort  of  policy  which  ought  to  be  pursued 
in  the  management  of  America  even  more  than  its 
population  and  its  commerce — I  mean  its  temper  and 
character. 

38.  In  this  character  of  the  Americans  a  love  of 
freedom  is  the  predominating  feature  which  marks 
and  distinguishes  the  whole ;  and  as  an  ardent  is  always 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  61 

a  jealous  affection,  your  colonies  become  suspicious, 
restive,  and  untractable  whenever  they  see  the  least 
attempt  to  wrest  from  them  by  force,  or  shuffle  from 
them  by  chicane,  what  they  think  the  only  advantage 
worth  living  for.  This  fierce  spirit  of  liberty  is 
stronger  in  the  English  colonies  probably  than  in  any 
other  people  of  the  earth,  and  this  from  a  great  variety 
of  powerful  causes;  which,  to  understand  the  true 
temper  of  their  minds,  and  the  direction  which  this 
spirit  takes,  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  lay  open  somewhat 
more  largely. 

09.  First,  the  people  of  the  colonies  are  descend 
ants  of  Englishmen.  England,  Sir,  is  a  nation,  which 
still  I  hope  respects,  and  formerly  adored,  her  free 
dom.  The  colonists  emigrated  from  you  when  this 
part  of  your  character  was  most  predominant,  and 
they  took  this  bias  and  direction  the  moment  they 
parted  from  your  hands.  They  are  therefore  not  only 
devoted  to  liberty,  but  to  liberty  according  to  English 
ideas  and  on  English  principles.  Abstract  liberty, 
like  other  mere  abstractions,  is  not  to  be  found.  Lib 
erty  inheres  in  some  sensible  object ;  and  every  nation 
has  formed  to  itself  some  favorite  point  which,  by  way 
of  eminence,  becomes  the  criterion  of  their  happiness. 
It  happened,  you  know,  Sir,  that  the  great  contests 
for  freedom  in  this  country  were  from  the  earliest 
times  chiefly  upon  the  question  of  taxing.  Most  of 
the  contests  in  the  ancient  commonwealths  turned  pri 
marily  on  the  right  of  election  of  magistrates,  or  on 
the  balance  among  the  several  orders  of  the  state.  The 
question  of  money  was  not  with  them  so  immediate. 


62  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

But  in  England  it  was  otherwise.  On  this  point  of 
taxes  the  ablest  pens  and  most  eloquent  tongues  have 
been  exercised;  the  greatest  spirits  have  acted  and 
suffered.  In  order  to  give  the  fullest  satisfaction  con 
cerning  the  importance  of  this  point  it  was  not  only 
necessary  for  those  who  in  argument  defended  the 
excellence  of  the  English  Constitution  to  insist  on  this 
privilege  of  granting  money  as  a  dry  point  of  fact, 
and  to  prove  that  the  right  had  been  acknowledged 
in  ancient  parchments  and  blind  usages  to  reside  in 
a  certain  body  called  a  House  of  Commons.  They 
went  much  further;  they  attempted  to  prove — and 
they  succeeded — that  in  theory  it  ought  to  be  so,  from 
the  particular  nature  of  a  House  of  Commons  as  an 
immediate  representative  of  the  people,  whether  the 
old  records  had  delivered  this  oracle  or  not.  They  took 
infinite  pains  to  inculcate,  as  a  fundamental  principle, 
that  in  all  monarchies  the  people  must  in  effect  them 
selves  mediately  or  immediately,  possess  the  power 
of  granting  their  own  money,  or  no  shadow  of  liberty 
could  subsist.  The  colonies  draw  from  you,  as  with 
their  life-blood,  these  ideas  and  principles.  Their  love 
of  liberty,  as  with  you,  fixed  and  attached  on  this  spe 
cific  point  of  taxing.  Liberty  might  be  safe,  or  might 
be  endangered,  in  twenty  other  particulars,  without 
their  being  much  pleased  or  alarmed.  Here  they  felt 
its  pulse;  and  as  they  found  that  beat,  they  thought 
themselves  sick  or  sound.  I  do  not  say  whether  they 
were  right  or  wrong  in  applying  your  general  argu 
ments  to  their  own  case.  It  is  not  easy,  indeed,  to 
make  a  monopoly  of  theorems  and  corollaries.  The 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  63 

fact  is  that  they  did  thus  apply  those  general  argu 
ments;  and  your  mode  of  governing  them — whether 
through  lenity  or  indolence,  through  wisdom  or  mis 
take — confirmed  them  in  the  imagination  that  they,  as 
well  as  you,  had  an  interest  in  these  common  prin 
ciples. 

40.  They  were  further  confirmed  in  this  pleasing 
error  by  the  form  of  their  provincial  legislative  as 
semblies.     Their  governments  are  popular  in  a  high 
degree ;  some  are  merely  popular ;  in  all,  the  popular 
representative  is  the  most  weighty ;  and  this  share  of 
the  people  in  their  ordinary  government  never  fails 
to  inspire  them  with  lofty  sentiments,   and  with  a 
strong  aversion  from  whatever  tends  to  deprive  them 
of  their  chief  importance. 

41.  If  anything  were   wanting  to  this  necessary 
operation  of  the  form  of  government,  religion  would 
have  given  it  a  complete  effect.     Religion,  always  a 
principle  of  energy,  in  this  new  people  is  no  way  worn 
out  or  impaired;  and  their  mode  of  professing  it  is 
also  one  main  cause  of  this  free  spirit.     The  people  are 
Protestants,  and  of  that  kind  which  is  the  most  adverse 
to  all  implicit  submission  of  mind  and  opinion.    This 
is  a  persuasion  not  only  favorable  to  liberty,  but  built 
upon  it.    I  do  not  think,  Sir,  that  the  reason  of  this 
averseness  in  the  dissenting  churches  from  all  that 
looks  like  absolute  government  is  so  much  to  be  sought 
in  their  religious  tenets  as  in  their  history.    Every  one 
knows  that  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  is  at  least 
coeval  with  most  of  the  governments  where  it  prevails, 
that  it  has  generally  gone  hand  in  hand  with  them, 


64  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

and  received  great  favor  and  every  kind  of  support 
from  authority.  The  Church  of  England,  too,  was 
formed  from  her  cradle  under  the  nursing  care  of 
regular  government.  But  the  dissenting  interests  have 
sprung  up  in  direct  opposition  to  all  the  ordinary 
powers  of  the  world,  and  could  justify  that  opposition 
only  on  a  strong  claim  to  natural  liberty.  Their  very 
existence  depended  on  the  powerful  and  unremitted 
assertion  of  that  claim.  All  Protestantism,  even  the 
most  cold  and  passive,  is  a  sort  of  dissent.  But  the 
religion  most  prevalent  in  our  northern  colonies  is  a 
refinement  on  the  principle  of  resistance;  it  is  the 
dissidence  of  dissent,  and  the  protestantism  of  the 
Protestant  religion.  This  religion,  under  a  variety  of 
denominations  agreeing  in  nothing  but  in  the  com 
munion  of  the  spirit  of  liberty,  is  predominant  in 
most  of  the  northern  provinces,  where  the  Church  of 
England,  notwithstanding  its  legal  rights,  is  in  reality 
no  more  than  a  sort  of  private  sect,  not  composing, 
most  probably,  the  tenth  of  the  people.  The  colonists 
left  England  when  this  spirit  was  high,  and  in  the 
emigrants  was  the  highest  of  all ;  and  even  that  stream 
of  foreigners  which  has  been  constantly  flowing  into 
these  colonies  has,  for  the  greatest  part,  been  composed 
of  dissenters  from  the  establishments  of  their  several 
countries,  who  have  brought  with  them  a  temper  and 
character  far  from  alien  to  that  of  the  people  with 
whom  they  mixed. 

42.  Sir,  I  can  perceive  by  their  manner  that  some 
gentlemen  object  to  the  latitude  of  this  description, 
because  in  the  southern  colonies  the  Church  of  Eng- 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  65 

land  forms  a  large  body,  and  has  a  regular  establish 
ment.  It  is  certainly  true.  There  is,  however,  a  circum 
stance  attending  these  colonies,  which  in  my  opinion 
fully  counterbalances  this  difference,  and  makes 
the  spirit  of  liberty  still  more  high  and  haughty  than 
in  those  to  the  northward.  It  is  that  in  Virginia  and 
the  Carolinas  they  have  a  vast  multitude  of  slaves. 
Where  this  is  the  case  in  any  part  of  the  world,  those 
who  are  free  are  by  far  the  most  proud  and  jealous  of 
their  freedom.  Freedom  is  to  them  not  only  an  en 
joyment,  but  a  kind  of  rank  and  privilege.  Not  seeing 
there  that  freedom,  as  in  countries  where  it  is  a  com 
mon  blessing  and  as  broad  and  general  as  the  air, 
may  be  united  with  much  abject  toil,  with  great  mis 
ery,  with  all  the  exterior  of  servitude,  liberty  looks 
amongst  them  like  something  that  is  more  noble  and 
liberal.  I  do  not  mean,  Sir,  to  commend  the  superior 
morality  of  this  sentiment,  which  has  at  least  as  much 
pride  as  virtue  in  it ;  but  I  cannot  alter  the  nature  of 
man.  The  fact  is  so :  and  these  people  of  the  southern 
colonies  are  much  more  strongly,  and  with  a  higher 
and  more  stubborn  spirit,  attached  to  liberty,  than 
those  to  the  northward.  Such  were  all  the  ancient 
commonwealths ;  such  were  our  Gothic  ancestors ;  such 
in  our  days  were  the  Poles ;  and  such  will  be  all  mas 
ters  of  slaves,  who  are  not  slaves  themselves.  In  such 
a  people,  the  haughtiness  of  domination  combines  with 
the  spirit  of  freedom,  fortifies  it,  and  renders  it  in 
vincible. 

43.     Permit  me.  Sir,  to  add  another  circumstance 
in  our  colonies  which  contributes  no  mean  part  towards 


66  BUEKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

the  growth  and  effect  of  this  untractable  spirit.  I 
mean  their  education.  In  no  country  perhaps  in  the 
world  is  the  law  so  general  a  study.  The  profession 
itself  is  numerous  and  powerful,  and  in  most  provinces 
it  takes  the  lead.  The  greater  number  of  the  deputies 
sent  to  the  Congress  were  lawyers.  But  all  who  read — • 
and  most  do  read — endeavor  to  obtain  some  smattering 
in  that  science.  I  have  been  told  by  an  eminent  book 
seller  that  in  no  branch  of  his  business,  after  tracts  of 
popular  devotion,  were  so  many  books  as  those  on  the 
law  exported  to  the  plantations.  The  colonists  have 
now  fallen  into  the  way  of  printing  them  for  their  own 
use.  I  hear  that  they  have  sold  nearly  as  many  of 
Blackstone's  Commentaries  in  America  as  in  England. 
General  Gage  marks  out  this  disposition  very  particu 
larly  in  a  letter  on  your  table.  He  states  that  all  the 
people  in  his  government  are  lawyers,  or  smatterers  in 
law;  and  that  in  Boston  they  have  been  enabled,  by 
successful  chicane,  wholly  to  evade  many  parts  of  one 
of  your  capital  penal  constitutions.  The  smartness 
of  debate  will  say  that  this  knowledge  ought  to  teach 
them  more  clearly  the  rights  of  legislature,  their  obli 
gations  to  obedience,  and  the  penalties  of  rebellion. 
All  this  is  mighty  well.  But  my  honorable  and  learned 
friend  on  the  floor,  who  condescends  to  mark  what  I 
say  for  animadversion,  will  disdain  that  ground.  He 
has  heard,  as  well  as  I,  that  when  great  honors  and 
great  emoluments  do  not  win  over  this  knowledge  to 
the  service  of  the  state,  it  is  a  formidable  adversary 
to  government.  If  the  spirit  be  not  tamed  and  broken 
by  these  happy  methods,  it  is  stubborn  and  litigious. 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  67 

Abeunt  studia  in  mores.  This  study  renders  men 
acute,  inquisitive,  dextrous,  prompt  in  attack,  ready 
in  defense,  full  of  resources.  In  other  countries  the 
people,  more  simple  and  of  a  less  mercurial  cast,  judge 
of  an  ill  principle  in  government  only  by  an  actual 
grievance;  here  they  anticipate  the  evil,  and  judge  of 
the  pressure  of  the  grievance  by  the  badness  of  the 
principle.  -They  augur  misgovernment  at  a  distance, 
and  snuff  the  approach  of  tyranny  in  every  tainted 
breeze. 

44.  The  last  cause  of  this  disobedient  spirit  in  the 
colonies  is  hardly  less  powerful  than  the  rest,  as  it  is 
not  merely  moral,  but  laid  deep  in  the  natural  consti 
tution  of  things.  Three  thousand  miles  of  ocean  lie 
between  you  and  them.  No  contrivance  can  prevent 
the  effect  of  this  distance  in  weakening  government. 
Seas  roll,  and  months  pass,  between  the  order  and  the 
execution ;  and  the  want  of  a  speedy  explanation  of  a 
single  point  is  enough  to  defeat  a  whole  system.  You 
have,  indeed,  winged  ministers  of  vengeance,  who  carry 
your  bolts  in  their  pounces  to  the  remotest  verge  of 
the  sea.  But  there  a  power  steps  in  that  limits  the 
arrogance  of  raging  passions  and  furious  elements, 
and  says,  "So  far  shalt  thou  go,  and  no  farther.'* 
Who  are  you  that  should  fret  and  rage,  and  bite  the 
chains  of  nature  ?  Nothing  worse  happens  to  you  than 
does  to  all  nations  who  have  extensive  empire ;  and  it 
happens  in  all  the  forms  into  which  empire  can  be 
thrown.  In  large  bodies  the  circulation  of  power  must 
be  less  vigorous  at  the  extremities.  Nature  has  said  it. 
The  Turk  cannot  govern  Egypt,  and  Arabia,  and 


68  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

Kurdistan,  as  he  governs  Thrace ;  nor  has  he  the  same 
dominion  in  Crimea  and  Algiers  which  he  has  at 
Brusa  and  Smyrna.  Despotism  itself  is  obliged  to 
truck  and  huckster.  The  Sultan  gets  such  obedience 
as  he  can.  He  governs  with  a  loose  rein,  that  he  may 
govern  at  all ;  and  the  whole  of  the  force  and  vigor  of 
his  authority  in  his  center  is  derived  from  a  prudent 
relaxation  in  all  his  borders.  Spain,  in  her  provinces, 
is  perhaps  not  so  well  obeyed  as  you  are  in  yours.  She 
complies  too ;  she  submits ;  she  watches  times.  This  is 
the  immutable  condition,  the  eternal  law,  of  extensive 
and  detached  empire. 

45.  Then,  Sir,  from  these  six  capital  sources — of 
descent,  of  form  of  government,  of  religion  in  the 
northern  provinces,  of  manners  in  the  southern,  of 
education,  of  the  remoteness  of  situation  from  the  first 
mover  of  government — from  all  these  causes  a  fierce 
spirit  of  liberty  has  grown  up.    It  has  grown  with  the 
growth  of  the  people  in  your  colonies,  and  increased 
with  the  increase  of  their  wealth :  a  spirit  that — un 
happily  meeting  with  an  exercise  of  power  in  England 
which,  however  lawful,  is  not  reconcilable  to  any  ideas 
of  liberty,  much  less  with  theirs — has  kindled  this 
flame  that  is  ready  to  consume  us. 

46.  I  do  not  mean  to  commend  either  the  spirit  in 
this  excess  or  the  moral  causes  which  produce  it. 
Perhaps  a  more  smooth  and  accommodating  spirit  of 
freedom  in  them  would  be  more  acceptable  to  us.    Per 
haps  ideas  of  liberty  might  be  desired  more  reconcil 
able  with  an  arbitrary  and  boundless  authority.    Per 
haps  we  might  wish  the  colonists  to  be  persuaded  that 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  69 

their  liberty  is  more  secure  when  held  in  trust  for  them 
by  us,  as  their  guardians  during  a  perpetual  minority, 
than  with  any  part  of  it  in  their  own  hands.  But  the 
question  is  not  whether  their  spirit  deserves  praise  or 
blame.  What,  in  the  name  of  God,  shall  we  do  with 
it  ?  You  have  before  you  the  object,  such  as  it  is,  with 
all  its  glories,  with  all  its  imperfections  on  its  head. 
You  see  the  magnitude,  the  importance,  the  temper, 
the  habits,  the  disorders.  By  all  these  considerations 
we  are  strongly  urged  to  determine  something  concern 
ing  it.  "We  are  called  upon  to  fix  some  rule  and  line 
for  our  future  conduct,  which  may  give  a  little  stabil 
ity  to  our  politics,  and  prevent  the  return  of  such  un 
happy  deliberations  as  the  present.  Every  such  return 
will  bring  the  matter  before  us  in  a  still  more  untract- 
able  form.  For  what  astonishing  and  incredible  things 
have  we  not  seen  already!  What  monsters  have  not 
been  generated  from  this  unnatural  contention  1 
Whilst  every  principle  of  authority  and  resistance  has 
been  pushed,  upon  both  sides,  as  far  as  it  would  go, 
there  is  nothing  so  solid  and  certain,  either  in  reason 
ing  or  in  practice,  that  has  not  been  shaken.  Until 
very  lately  all  authority  in  America  seemed  to  be  noth 
ing  but  an  emanation  from  yours.  Even  the  popular 
part  of  the  colony  constitution  derived  all  its  activity, 
and  its  first  vital  movement,  from  the  pleasure  of  the 
crown.  We  thought,  Sir,  that  the  utmost  which  the 
discontented  colonists  could  do  was  to  disturb  author 
ity  ;  we  never  dreamt  they  could  of  themselves  supply 
it,  knowing  in  general  what  an  operose  business  it  is 
to  establish  a  government  absolutely  new.  But  having, 


70  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

for  our  purposes  in  this  contention,  resolved  that  none 
but  an  obedient  assembly  should  sit,  the  humors  of  the 
people  there,  finding  all  passage  through  the  legal 
channel  stopped,  with  great  violence  broke  out  another 
way.  Some  provinces  have  tried  their  experiment,  as 
we  have  tried  ours;  and  theirs  has  succeeded.  They 
have  formed  a  government  sufficient  for  its  purposes, 
without  the  bustle  of  a  revolution  or  the  troublesome 
formality  of  an  election.  Evident  necessity  and  tacit 
consent  have  done  the  business  in  an  instant.  So  well 
they  have  done  it  that  Lord  Dunmore — the  account  is 
among  the  fragments  on  your  table — tells  you  that  the 
new  institution  is  infinitely  better  obeyed  than  the 
ancient  government  ever  was  in  its  most  fortunate 
periods.  Obedience  is  what  makes  government,  and 
not  the  names  by  which  it  is  called ;  not  the  name  of 
Governor,  as  formerly,  or  Committee,  as  at  present. 
This  new  government  has  originated  directly  from  the 
people,  and  was  not  transmitted  through  any  of  the 
ordinary  artificial  media  of  a  positive  constitution.  It 
was  not  a  manufacture  ready  formed,  and  transmitted 
to  them  in  that  condition  from  England.  The  evil 
arising  from  hence  is  this:  that  the  colonists  having 
once  found  the  possibility  of  enjoying  the  advantages 
of  order  in  the  midst  of  a  struggle  for  liberty,  such 
struggles  will  not  henceforward  seem  so  terrible  to 
the  settled  and  sober  part  of  mankind  as  they  had  ap 
peared  before  the  trial. 

47.  Pursuing  the  same  plan,  of  punishing  by  the 
denial  of  the  exercise  of  government,  to  still  greater 
lengths,  we  wholly  abrogated  the  ancient  government 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  OX  CONCILIATION  71 

of  Massachusetts.  We  were  confident  that  the  first 
feeling,  if  not  the  very  prospect  of  anarchy  would  in 
stantly  enforce  a.  complete  submission.  The  experi 
ment  was  tried.  A  new,  strange,  unexpected  face  of 
things  appeared.  Anarchy  is  found  tolerable.  A  vast 
province  has  now  subsisted,  and  subsisted  in  a  consid 
erable  degree  of  health  and  vigor,  for  near  a  twelve 
month,  without  governor,  without  public  council,  with 
out  judges,  without  executive  magistrates.  How  long 
it  will  continue  in  this  state,  or  what  may  arise  out  of 
this  unheard-of  situation,  how  can  the  wisest  of  us 
conjecture?  Our  late  experience  has  taught  us  that 
many  of  those  fundamental  principles,  formerly  be 
lieved  infallible,  are  either  not  of  the  importance  they 
were  imagined  to  be,  or  that  we  have  not  at  all  ad 
verted  to  some  other  far  more  important  and  far  more 
powerful  principles  which  entirely  overrule  those  we 
had  considered  as  omnipotent.  I  am  much  against  any 
further  experiments  which  tend  to  put  to  the  proof 
any  more  of  these  allowed  opinions  which  contribute 
so  much  to  the  public  tranquillity.  In  effect,  we  suffer 
as  much  at  home  by  this  loosening  of  all  ties,  and  this 
concussion  of  all  established  opinions,  as  we  do  abroad. 
For,  in  order  to  prove  that  the  Americans  have  no 
right  to  their  liberties,  we  are  every  day  endeavoring 
to  subvert  the  maxims  which  preserve  the  .whole  spirit 
of  our  own.  To  prove  that  the  Americans  ought  not 
to  be  free,  we  are  obliged  to  depreciate  the  value  of 
freedom  itself;  and  we  never  seem  to  gain  a  paltry 
advantage  over  them  in  debate,  without  attacking  some 
of  those  principles,  or  deriding  some  of  those  feelings, 
for  which  our  ancestors  have  shed  their  blood. 


72  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

48.  But,  Sir,  in  wishing  to  put  an  end  to  pernicious 
experiments  I  do  not  mean  to  preclude  the  fullest 
inquiry.    Far  from  it.    Far  from  deciding  on  a  sudden 
or  partial  view,  I  would  patiently  go  round  and  round 
the  subject,  and  survey  it  minutely  in  every  possible 
aspect.    Sir,  if  I  were  capable  of  engaging  you  to  an 
equal  attention,  I  would  state  that,  as  far  as  I  am 
capable  of  discerning,  there  are  but  three  ways  of  pro 
ceeding  relative  to  this  stubborn  spirit  which  prevails 
in  your  colonies  and  disturbs  your  government.    These 
are :  to  change  that  spirit,  as  inconvenient,  by  remov 
ing  the  causes ;  to  prosecute  it  as  criminal ;  or  to  comply 
with  it  as  necessary.    I  would  not  be  guilty  of  an  im 
perfect  enumeration ;  I  can  think  of  but  these  three. 
Another  has  indeed  been  started,  that  of  giving  up  the 
colonies ;  but  it  met  so  slight  a  reception  that  I  do  not 
think  myself  obliged  to  dwell  a  great  while  upon  it. 
It  is  nothing  but  a  little  sally  of  anger,  like  the  for 
wardness  of  peevish  children,  who,  when  they  cannot 
get  all  they  would  have,  are  resolved  to  take  nothing, 

49.  The  first  of  these  plans — to  change  the  spirit,  as 
inconvenient,  by  removing  the  causes — I  think  is  the 
most  like  a  systematic  proceeding.    It  is  radical  in  its 
principle;  but  it  is  attended  with  great  difficulties, 
some  of  them  little  short,  as  I  conceive,  of  impossibili 
ties.     This. will  appear  by  examining  into  the  plans 
which  have  been  proposed. 

50.  As  the  growing  population  of  the  colonies  is 
evidently  one  cause  of  their  resistance,  it  was  last 
session  mentioned  in  both  Houses  by  men  of  weight, 
and  received  not  without  applause,  that,  in  order  to 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  73 

check  this  evil,  it  would  be  proper  for  the  crown  to 
make  no  further  grants  of  land.  But  to  this  scheme 
there  are  two  objections.  The  first,  that  there  is  al 
ready  so  much  unsettled  land  in  private  hands  as  to 
afford  room  for  an  immense  future  population, 
although  the  crown  not  only  withheld  its  grants,  but 
annihilated  its  soil.  If  this  be  the  case,  then  the  only 
effect  of  this  avarice  of  desolation,  this  hoarding  of  a 
royal  wilderness,  would  be  to  raise  the  value  of  the 
possessions  in  the  hands  of  the  great  private  monopo 
lists,  without  any  adequate  check  to  the  growing  and 
alarming  mischief  of  population. 

51.  But  if  you  stopped  your  grants,  what  would 
be  the  consequence?  The  people  would  occupy  with 
out  grants.  They  have  already  so  occupied  in  many 
places.  You  cannot  station  garrisons  in  every  part 
of  these  deserts.  If  you  drive  the  people  from  one 
place,  they  will  carry  on  their  annual  tillage,  and 
remove  with  their  flocks  and  herds  to  another.  Many 
of  the  people  in  the  back  settlements  are  already  little 
attached  to  particular  situations.  Already  they  have 
topped  the  Appalachian  mountains.  From  thence 
they  behold  before  them  an  immense  plain — one  vast, 
rich,  level  meadow — a  square  of  five  hundred  miles. 
Over  this  they  would  wander  without  a  possibility  of 
restraint ;  they  would  change  their  manners  with  the 
habits  of  their  life;  would  soon  forget  a  government 
by  which  they  were  disowned ;  would  become  hordes 
of  English  Tartars ;  and,  pouring  down  upon  your  un 
fortified  frontiers  a  fierce  and  irresistible  cavalry,  be 
come  masters  of  your  governors  and  your  counsellors, 


74  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

your  collectors  and  comptrollers,  and  of  all  the  slaves 
that  adhered  to  them.  Such  would,  and  in  no  long 
time  must  be,  the  effect  of  attempting  to  forbid  as  a 
crime,  and  to  suppress  as  an  evil,  the  command  and 
blessing  of  Providence,  " Increase  and  multiply." 
Such  would  be  the  happy  result  of  an  endeavor  to  keep 
as  a  lair  of  wild  beasts  that  earth  which  God,  by  an 
express  charter,  has  given  to  the  children  of  men.  Far 
different,  and  surely  much  wiser,  has  been  our  policy 
hitherto.  Hitherto  we  have  invited  our  people,  by 
every  kind  of  bounty,  to  fixed  establishments.  We 
have  invited  the  husbandman  to  look  to  authority  for 
his  title.  We  have  taught  him  piously  to  believe  in  the 
mysterious  virtue  of  wax  and  parchment.  We  have 
thrown  each  tract  of  land,  as  it  was  peopled,  into  dis 
tricts,  that  the  ruling  power  should  never  be  wholly 
out  of  sight.  We  have  settled  all  we  could,  and  we 
have  carefully  attended  every  settlement  with  govern 
ment. 

52.  Adhering,  Sir,  as  I  do,  to  this  policy,  as  well 
as  for  the  reasons  I  have  just  given,  I  think  this  new 
project  of  hedging  in  population  to  be  neither  prudent 
nor  practicable. 

53.  To  impoverish  the  colonies  in  general,  and  in 
particular  to  arrest  the  noble  course  of  their  marine 
enterprises,  would  be  a  more  easy  task.    I  freely  con 
fess  it.    We  have  shown  a  disposition  to  a  system  of 
this  kind — a  disposition  even  to  continue  the  restraint 
after  the  offense ;  looking  on  ourselves  as  rivals  to  our 
colonies,  and  persuaded  that  of  course  we  must  gain 
all  that  they  shall  lose.    Much  mischief  we  may  cer- 


BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  75 

tainly  do.  The  power  inadequate  to  all  other  things 
is  often  more  than  sufficient  for  this.  I  do  not  look  on 
the  direct  and  immediate  power  of  the  colonies  to  resist 
our  violence  as  very  formidable.  In  this,  however,  I 
may  be  mistaken.  But  when  I  consider  that  we  have 
colonies  for  no  purpose  but  to  be  serviceable  to  us,  it 
seems  to  my  poor  understanding  a  little  preposterous 
to  make  them  unserviceable  in  order  to  keep  them 
obedient.  It  is,  in  truth,  nothing  more  than  the  old 
and,  as  I  thought,  exploded  problem  of  tyranny,  which 
proposes  to  beggar  its  subjects  into  submission.  But 
remember,  when  you  have  completed  your  system  of 
impoverishment,  that  nature  still  proceeds  in  her  ordi 
nary  course ;  that  discontent  will  increase  with  misery ; 
and  that  there  are  critical  moments  in  the  fortune  of 
all  states  when  they  who  are  too  weak  to  contribute 
to  your  prosperity  may  be  strong  enough  to  complete 
your  ruin.  Spoliatis  anna  supersunt. 

54.  The  temper  and  character  which  prevail  in  our 
colonies  are,  I  am  afraid,  unalterable  by  any  human 
art.    We  cannot,  I  fear,  falsify  the  pedigree  of  this 
fierce  people,  and  persuade  them  that  they  are  not 
sprung  from  a  nation  in  whose  veins  the  blood  of  free 
dom  circulates.     The  language  in  which  they  would 
hear  you  tell  them  this  tale  would  detect  the  imposi 
tion  ;  your  speech  would  betray  you.    An  Englishman 
is  the  unfittest  person  on  earth  to  argue  another  Eng 
lishman  into  slavery. 

55.  I  think  it  is  nearly  as  little  in  our  power  to 
change  their  republican  religion  as  their  free  descent, 
or  to  substitute  the  Roman  Catholic  as  a  penalty,  or 


76       *     BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

the  Church  of  England  as  an  improvement.  The  mode 
of  inquisition  and  dragooning  is  going  out  of  fashion 
in  the  Old  World,  and  I  should  not  confide  much  to 
their  efficacy  in  the  New.  The  education  of  the  Amer 
icans  is  also  on  the  same  unalterable  bottom  with  their 
religion.  You  cannot  persuade  them  to  burn  their 
books  of  curious  science,  to  banish  their  lawyers  from 
their  courts  of  laws,  or  to  quench  the  lights  of  their 
assemblies  by  refusing  to  choose  those  persons  who  are 
best  read  in  their  privileges.  It  would  be  no  less  im 
practicable  to  think  of  wholly  annihilating  the  popular 
assemblies  in  which  these  lawyers  sit.  The  army  by 
which  we  must  govern  in  their  place  would  be  far  more 
chargeable  to  us,  not  quite  so  effectual,  and  perhaps, 
in  the  end,  full  as  difficult  to  be  kept  in  obedience. 

56.  With  regard  to  the  high  aristocratic  spirit  of 
Virginia  and  the  southern  colonies  it  has  been  pro 
posed,  I  know,  to  reduce  it  by  declaring  a  general 
enfranchisement  of  their  slaves.  This  project  has  had 
its  advocates  and  panegyrists ;  yet  I  never  could  argue 
myself  into  any  opinion  of  it.  Slaves  are  often  much 
attached  to  their  masters.  A  general  wild  offer  of 
liberty  would  not  always  be  accepted.  History  fur 
nishes  few  instances  of  it.  It  is  sometimes  as  hard  to 
persuade  slaves  to  be  free  as  it  is  to  compel  freemen 
to  be  slaves ;  and  in  this  auspicious  scheme  we  should 
have  both  these  pleasing  tasks  on  our  hands  at  once. 
But  when  we  talk  of  enfranchisement,  do  we  not  per 
ceive  that  the  American  master  may  enfranchise  too, 
and  arm  servile  hands  in  defense  of  freedom  ? — a  meas 
ure  to  which  other  people  have  had  recourse  more 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  OX  CONCILIATION 


i  i 


than  once,  and  not  without  success,  in  a  desperate  situ 
ation  of  their  affairs. 

57.  Slaves  as  these  unfortunate  black  people  are, 
and  dull  as  all  men  are  from  slavery,  must  they  not  a 
little  suspect  the  offer  of  freedom  from  that  very  na 
tion  which  has  sold  them  to  their  present  masters? 
from  that  nation  one  of  whose  causes  of  quarrel  with 
those  masters  is  their  refusal  to  deal  any  more  in  that 
inhuman  traffic  ?    An  offer  of  freedom  from  England 
would  come  rather  oddly,  shipped  to  them  in  an  Afri 
can  vessel,  which  is  refused  an  entry  into  the  ports  of 
Virginia  or  Carolina  with  a  cargo  of  three  hundred 
Angola  negroes.    It  would  be  curious  to  see  the  Guinea 
captain  attempting  at  the  same  instant  to  publish  his 
proclamation  of  liberty,  and  to  advertise  his  sale  of 
slaves. 

58.  But  let  us  suppose  all  these  moral  difficulties 
got  over.    The  ocean  remains.    You  cannot  pump  this 
dry ;  and  as  long  as  it  continues  in  its  present  bed,  so 
long  all  the  causes  which  weaken  authority  by  distance 
will  continue.     "Ye  gods,  annihilate  but  space  and 
time,  and  make  two  lovers  happy ! ' '  was  a  pious  and 
passionate  prayer;  but  just  as  reasonable  as  many  of 
the  serious  wishes  of  very  grave  and  solemn  politicians. 

59.  If  then,  Sir,  it  seems  almost  desperate  to  think 
of  any  alterative  course  for  changing  the  moral  causes 
— and  not  quite  easy  to  remove  the  natural — which 
produce  prejudices  irreconcilable  to  the  late  exercise 
of  our  authority,  but  that  the  spirit  infallibly  will  con 
tinue,  and,  continuing,  will  produce  such  effects  as  now 
embarrass  us,  the  second  mode  under  consideration  is 
to  prosecute  that  spirit  in  its  overt  acts  as  criminal. 


78  BUBKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

60.  At  this  proposition  I  must  pause  a  moment. 
The  thing  seems  a  great  deal  too  big  for  my  ideas  of 
jurisprudence.  It  should  seem,  to  my  way  of  conceiv 
ing  such  matters,  that  there  is  a  very  wide  difference 
in  reason  and  policy  between  the  mode  of  proceeding 
on  the  irregular  conduct  of  scattered  individuals,  or 
even  of  bands  of  men,  who  disturb  order  within  the 
state,  and  the  civil  dissensions  which  may,  from  time 
to  time,  on  great  questions,  agitate  the  several  com 
munities  which  compose  a  great  empire.  It  looks  to 
me  to  be  narrow  and  pedantic  to  apply  the  ordinary 
ideas  of  criminal  justice  to  this  great  public  contest. 
I  do  not  know  the  method  of  drawing  up  an  indictment 
against  a  whole  people.  I  cannot  insult  and  ridicule 
the  feelings  of  millions  of  my  fellow-creatures  as  Sir 
Edward  Coke  insulted  one  excellent  individual — Sir 
Walter  Raleigh — at  the  bar.  I  hope  I  am  not  ripe  to 
pass  sentence  on  the  gravest  public  bodies,  intrusted 
with  magistracies  of  great  authority  and  dignity,  and 
charged  with  the  safety  of  their  fellow-citizens  upon 
the  very  same  title  that  I  am.  I  really  think  that  for 
wise  men  this  is  not  judicious,  for  sober  men  not 
decent,  for  minds  tinctured  with  humanity  not  mild 
and  merciful. 

61.  Perhaps,  Sir,  I  am  mistaken  in  my  idea  of  an 
empire,  as  distinguished  from  a  single  state  or  king 
dom.  But  my  idea  of  it  is  this :  that  an  empire  is  the 
aggregate  of  many  states  under  one  common  head, 
whether  this  head  be  a  monarch  or  a  presiding  repub 
lic.  It  does  in  such  constitutions  frequently  happen — 
and  nothing  but  the  dismal,  cold,  dead  uniformity  of 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  79 

servitude  caii  prevent  its  happening — that  the  sub 
ordinate  parts  have  many  local,  privileges  and  im 
munities.  Between  these  privileges  and  the  supreme 
common  authority  the  line  may  be  extremely  nice. 
Of  course  disputes — often,  too,  very  bitter  disputes 
and  much  ill  blood — will  arise.  But  though  every 
privilege  is  an  exemption — in  the  case — from  the  ordi 
nary  exercise  of  the  supreme  authority,  it  is  no  denial 
of  it.  The  claim  of  a  privilege  seems  rather,  ex  vi 
termini,  to  imply  a  superior  power.  For  to  talk  of  the 
privileges  of  a  state  or  of  a  person  who  has  no  superior 
is  hardly  any  better  than  speaking  nonsense.  Now 
in  such  unfortunate  quarrels  among  the  component 
parts  of  a  great  political  union  of  communities  I  can 
scarcely  conceive  anything  more  completely  impru 
dent  than  for  the  head  of  the  empire  to  insist  that,  if . 
any  privilege  is  pleaded  against  his  will  or  his  acts, 
his  whole  authority  is  denied;  instantly  to  proclaim 
rebellion,  to  beat  to  arms,  and  to  put  the  offending 
provinces  under  the  ban.  "Will  not  this,  Sir,  very  soon 
teach  the  provinces  to  make  no  distinctions  on  their 
part  ?  Will  it  not  teach  them  that  the  government 
against  which  a  claim  of  liberty  is  tantamount  to  high 
treason  is  a  government  to  which  submission  is  equiva 
lent  to  slavery  ?  It  may  not  always  be  quite  convenient 
to  impress  dependent  communities  with  such  an  idea. 
62.  We  are,  indeed,  in  all  disputes  with  the  col 
onies — by  the  necessity  of  things — the  judge.  It  is 
true,  Sir.  But  I  confess  that  the  character  of  judge 
in  my  own  cause  is  a  thing  that  frightens  me.  Instead 
of  filling  me  with  pride,  I  am  exceedingly  humbled  by 


80  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

it.  I  cannot  proceed  with  a  stern,  assured,  judicial 
confidence,  until  I  find  myself  in  something  more  like 
a  judicial  character.  I  must  have  these  hesitations  as 
long  as  I  am  compelled  to  recollect  that,  in  my  little 
reading  upon  such  contests  as  these,  the  sense  of  man 
kind  has  at  least  as  often  decided  against  the  superior 
as  the  subordinate  power.  Sir,  let  me  add,  too,  that  the 
opinion  of  my  having  some  abstract  right  in  my  favor 
would  not  put  mie  much  at  my  ease  in  passing  sentence, 
unless  I  could  be  sure  that  there  were  no  rights  which, 
in  their  exercise  under  certain  circumstances,  were  not 
the  most  odious  of  all  wrongs,  and  the  most  vexatious 
of  all  injustice.  Sir,  these  considerations  have  great 
weight  with  me  when  I  find  things  so  circumstanced 
that  I  see  the  same  party  at  once  a  civil  litigant  against 
me  in  a  point  of  right  and  a  culprit  before  me,  while 
I  sit  as  a  criminal  judge  on  acts  of  his  whose  moral 
quality  is  to  be  decided  upon  the  merits  of  that  very 
litigation.  Men  are  every  now  and  then  put,  by  the 
complexity  of  human  affairs,  into  strange  situations; 
but  justice  is  the  same,  let  the  judge  be  in  what  situa 
tion  he  will. 

63.  There  is,  Sir,  also  a  circumstance  which  con 
vinces  me  that  this  mode  of  criminal  proceeding  is  not 
— at  least  in  the  present  stage  of  our  contest — alto 
gether  expedient ;  which  is  nothing  less  than  the  con 
duct  of  those  very  persons  who  have  seemed  to  adopt 
that  mode  by  lately  declaring  a  rebellion  in  Massa 
chusetts  Bay,  as  they  had  formerly  addressed  to  have 
traitors  brought  hither,  under  an  act  of  Henry  the 
Eighth,  for  trial.  For  though  rebellion  is  declared,  it 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  81 

is  not  proceeded  against  as  such,  nor  have  any  steps 
been  taken  towards  the  apprehension  or  conviction  of 
any  individual  offender,  either  on  our  late  or  our  for 
mer  address ;  but  modes  of  public  coercion  have  been 
adopted,  and  such  as  have  much  more  resemblance  to 
a  sort  of  qualified  hostility  towards  an  independent 
power  than  the  punishment  of  rebellious  subjects.  All 
this  seems  rather  inconsistent ;  but  it  shows  how  diffi 
cult  it  is  to  apply  these  juridical  ideas  to  our  present 
case. 

64.  In  this  situation  let  us  seriously  and  coolly 
ponder.    What  is  it  we  have  got  by  all  our  menaces, 
which  have  been  many  and  ferocious?    "What  advan 
tage  have  we  derived  from  the  penal  laws  we  have 
passed,  and  which,  for  the  time,  have  been  severe  and 
numerous?     What  advances  have  we  made  towards 
our  object  by  the  sending  of  a  force  which,  by  land 
and  sea,  is  no  contemptible  strength  ?    Has  the  disorder 
abated  ?    Nothing  less.    When  I  see  things  in  this  situ 
ation,  after  such  confident  hopes,  bold  promises,  and 
active  exertions,  I  cannot,  for  my  life,  avoid  a  sus 
picion  that  the  plan  itself  is  not  correctly  right. 

65.  If  then  the  removal  of  the  causes  of  this  spirit 
of  American  liberty  be  for  the  greater  part — or  rather 
entirely — impracticable ;    if    the    ideas    of    criminal 
process  be  inapplicable,  or  if  applicable,  are  in  the 
highest  degree  inexpedient, -what  way  yet  remains? 
No  way  is  open  but  the  third  and  last — to  comply  with 
the  American  spirit  as  necessary ;  or,  if  you  please,  to 
submit  to  it  as  a  necessary  evil. 

66.  If  we  adopt  this  mode,  if  we  mean  to  conciliate 


82  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

and  concede,  let  us  see  of  what  nature  the  concession 
ought  to  be.  To  ascertain  the  nature  of  our  concession, 
we  must  look  at  their  complaint.  The  colonies  com 
plain  that  they  have  not  the  characteristic  mark  and 
seal  of  British  freedom.  They  complain  that  they  are 
taxed  in  a  Parliament  in  which  they  are  not  repre 
sented.  If  you  mean  to  satisfy  them  at  all,  you  must 
satisfy  them  with  regard  to  this  complaint.  If  you 
mean  to  please  any  people,  you  must  give  them  the 
boon  which  they  ask — not  what  you  may  think  better 
for  them,  but  of  a  kind  totally  different.  Such  an  act 
may  be  a  wise  regulation,  but  it  is  no  concession; 
whereas  our  present  theme  is  the  mode  of  giving  satis 
faction. 

67.  Sir,  I  think  you  must  perceive  that  I  am  re 
solved  this  day  to  have  nothing  at  all  to  do  with  the 
question  of  the  right  of  taxation.  Some  gentlemen 
startle — but  it  is  true ;  I  put  it  totally  out  of  the  ques 
tion.  It  is  less  than  nothing  in  my  consideration.  I 
do  not  indeed  wonder,  nor  will  you,  Sir,  that  gentle 
men  of  profound  learning  are  fond  of  displaying  it  on 
this  profound  subject.  But  my  consideration  is  nar 
row,  confined,  and  wholly  limited  to  the  policy  of  the 
question.  I  do  not  examine  whether  the  giving  away 
a  man's  money  be  a  power  excepted  and  reserved  out 
of  the  general  trust  of  government,  and  how  far  all 
mankind,  in  all  forms  of  polity,  are  entitled  to  an 
exercise  of  that  right  by  the  charter  of  nature ;  or 
whether,  on  the  contrary,  a  right  of  taxation  is  neces 
sarily  involved  in  the  general  principle  of  legislation, 
and  inseparable  from  the  ordinary  supreme  power. 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  OX  CONCILIATION  83 

These  are  deep  questions,  where  great  names  militate 
against  each  other,  where  reason  is  perplexed,  and  an 
appeal  to  authorities  only  thickens  the  confusion.  For 
high  and  reverend  authorities  lift  up  their  heads  on 
both  sides,  and  there  is  no  sure  footing  in  the  middle. 
Tl^is  point  is  the  great 

Serbonian  bog, 

Betwixt  Damiata  and  Mount  Casius  old, 
Where  armies  whole  have  sunk. 

I  do  not  intend  to  be  overwhelmed  in  that  bog,  though 
in  such  respectable  company.  The  question  with  me 
is  not  whether  you  have  a  right  to  render  your  people 
miserable,  but  whether  it  is  not  your  interest  to  make 
them  happy.  It  is  not  what  a  lawyer  tells  me  I  may 
do,  but  what  humanity,  reason,  and  justice  tell  me  I 
ought  to  do.  Is  a  politic  act  the  worse  for  being  a 
generous  one  ?  Is  no  concession  proper  but  that  which 
is  made  from  your  want  of  right  to  keep  what  you 
grant  '?  Or  does  it  lessen  the  grace  or  dignity  of  relax 
ing  in  the  exercise  of  an  odious  claim,  because  you  have 
your  evidence-room  full  of  titles,  and  your  magazines 
stuffed  with  arms  to  enforce  them  ?  What  signify  all 
those  titles  and  all  those  arms  ?  Of  what  avail  are  they, 
when  the  reason  of  the  thing  tells  me  that  the  assertion 
of  my  title  is  the  loss  of  my  suit,  and  that  I  could  do 
nothing  but  wound  myself  by  the  use  of  my  own 
weapons  ? 

68.  Such  is  steadfastly  my  opinion  of  the  absolute 
necessity  of  keeping  up  the  concord  of  this  empire  by 
a  unity  of  spirit,  though  in  a  diversity  of  operations, 
that  if  I  were  sure  the  colonists  had  at  their  leaving 


84  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

this  country  sealed  a  regular  compact  of  servitude, 
that  they  had  solemnly  abjured  all  the  rights  of  citi 
zens,  that  they  had  made  a  vow  to  renounce  all  ideas 
of  liberty  for  them  and  their  posterity  to  all  genera 
tions — yet  I  should  hold  myself  obliged  to  conform  to 
the  temper  I  found  universally  prevalent  in  my  own 
day,  and  to  govern  two  million  of  men,  impatient  of 
servitude,  on  the  principles  of  freedom.  I  am  not  de 
termining  a  point  of  law ;  I  am  restoring  tranquillity. 
And  the  general  character  and  situation  of  a  people 
must  determine  what  sort  of  government  is  fitted  for 
them.  That  point  nothing  else  can  or  ought  to  deter 
mine. 

69.  My     idea,     therefore,     without     considering 
whether  we  yield  as  matter  of  right,  or  grant  as  matter 
of  favor,  is  to  admit  the  people  of  our  colonies  into  an 
interest  in  the  Constitution;  and,  by  recording  that  ad 
mission  in  the  journals  of  Parliament,  to  give  them  as 
strong  an  assurance  as  the  nature  of  the  thing  will 
admit  that  we  mean  for  ever  to  adhere  to  that  solemn 
declaration  of  systematic  indulgence. 

70.  Some  years  ago  the  repeal  of  a  revenue  act, 
upon  its  understood  principle,  might  have  served  to 
show  that  we  intended  an  unconditional  abatement  of 
the  exercise  of  a  taxing  power.    Such  a  measure  was 
then  sufficient  to  remove  all  suspicion  and  to  give  per 
fect  content.    But  unfortunate  events  since  that  time 
may  make  something  further  necessary — and  not  more 
necessary  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  colonies  than  for 
the  dignity  and  consistency  of  our  own  future  pro 
ceedings. 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  OX  CONCILIATION  85 

71.  I  have  taken  a  very  incorrect  measure  of  the 
disposition  of  the  House  if  this  proposal  in   itself 
would  be  received  with  dislike.    I  think,  Sir,  we  have 
few  American  financiers.     But  our  misfortune  is  we 
are  too  acute ;  we  are  too  exquisite  in  our  conjectures  of 
the  future,  for  men  oppressed  with  such  great  and 
present  evils.    The  more  moderate  among  the  opposers 
of  parliamentary  concession  freely  confess  that  they 
hope  no  good  from  taxation ;  but  they  apprehend  the 
colonists  have  further  views,  and,  if  this  point  were 
conceded,  they  would  instantly  attack  the  trade  laws. 
These  gentlemen  are  convinced  that  this  was  the  in 
tention  from  the  beginning,  and  the  quarrel  of  the 
Americans  with  taxation  was  no  more  than  a  cloak  and 
cover  to  this  design.    Such  has  been  the  language  even 
of  a  gentleman  of  real  moderation,  and  of  a  natural 
temper  well  adjusted  to  fair  and  equal  government.    I 
am,  however,  Sir,  not  a  little  surprised  at  this  kind  of 
discourse,  whenever  I  hear  it ;  and  I  am  the  more  sur 
prised  on  account  of  the  arguments  which  I  constantly 
find  in  company  with  it,  and  which  are  often  urged 
from  the  same  mouths,  and  on  the  same  day. 

72.  For  instance,  when  we  allege  that  it  is  against 
reason  to  tax  a  people  under  so  many  restraints  in 
trade  as  the  Americans,  the  noble  lord  in  the  blue  rib 
bon  shall  tell  you  that  the  restraints  on  trade  are  futile 
and  useless,  of  no  advantage  to  us,  and  of  no  burthen 
to  those  011  whom  they  are  imposed ;  that  the  trade  to 
America  is  not  secured  by  the  acts  of  navigation,  but 
by  the  natural  and  irresistible  advantage  of  a  commer 
cial  preference. 


86  BUEKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

73.  Such  is  the  merit  of  the  trade  laws  in  this 
posture  of  the  debate.    But  when  strong  internal  cir 
cumstances  are  urged  against  the  taxes;  when  the 
scheme  is  dissected;  when  experience  and  the  nature 
of  things  are  brought  to  prove,  and  do  prove,  the  utter 
impossibility  of  obtaining  an  effective  revenue  from 
the  colonies ;  when  these  things  are  pressed,  or  rather 
press  themselves,  so  as  to  drive  the  advocates  of  colony 
taxes  to  a  clear  admission  of  the  futility  of  the  scheme 
— then,  Sir,  the  sleeping  trade  laws  revive  from  their 
trance ;  and  this  useless  taxation  is  to  be  kept  sacred, 
not  for  its  own  sake,  but  as  a  counter-guard  and  secur 
ity  of  the  laws  of  trade. 

74.  Then,  Sir,  you  keep  up  revenue  laws  which 
are  mischievous  in  order  to  preserve  trade  laws  that 
are  useless.    Such  is  the  wisdom  of  our  plan  in  both  its 
members.    They  are  separately  given  up  as  of  no  value, 
and  yet  one  is  always  to  be  defended  for  the  sake  of 
the  other.     But  I  cannot  agree  with  the  noble  lord, 
nor  with  the  pamphlet  from  whence  he  seems  to  have 
borrowed  these  ideas,  concerning  the  inutility  of  the 
trade  laws.     For,  without  idolizing  them,  I  am  sure 
they  are  still,  in  many  ways,  of  great  use  to  us ;  and  in 
former  times  they  have  been  of  the  greatest.     They 
do  confine,  and  they  do  greatly  narrow,  the  market  for 
the  Americans.    But  my  perfect  conviction  of  this  does 
not  help  me  in  the  least  to  discern  how  the  revenue 
laws  form  any  security  whatsoever  to  the  commercial 
regulations;  or  that  these  commercial  regulations  are 
the  true  ground  of  the  quarrel;  or  that  the  giving 
way,  in  any  one  instance  of  authority,  is  to  lose  all 
that  may  remain  unconceded. 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  87 

75.  One  fact  is  clear  and  indisputable.    The  public 
and  avowed  origin  of  this  quarrel  was  on  taxation. 
This  quarrel  has  indeed  brought  on  new  disputes  on 
new  questions,  but  certainly  the  least  bitter,  and  the 
fewest  of  all,  on  the  trade  laws.     To  judge  which  of 
the 'two  be  the  real,  radical  cause  of  quarrel,  we  have 
to  see  whether  the  commercial  dispute  did,  in  order 
of  time,  precede  the  dispute  on  taxation.    There  is  not 
a  shadow  of  evidence  for  it.     Next,  to  enable  us  to 
judge  whether  at  this  moment  a  dislike  to  the  trade 
laws  be  the  real  cause  of  quarrel,  it  is  absolutely  neces 
sary  to  put  the  taxes  out  of  the  question  by  a  repeal. 
See  how  the  Americans  act  in  this  position,  and  then 
you  will  be  able  to  discern  correctly  what  is  the  true 
object  of  the  controversy,  or  whether  any  controversy 
at  all  will  remain.    Unless  you  consent  to  remove  this 
cause  of  difference,  it  is  impossible,  with  decency,  to 
assert  that  the  dispute  is  not  upon  what  it  is  avowed 
to  be.    And  I  would,  Sir,  recommend  to  your  serious 
consideration  whether  it  be  prudent  to  form  a  rule  for 
punishing  people,  not  on  their  own  acts,  but  on  your 
conjectures.    Surely  it  is  preposterous  at  the  very  best. 
It  is  not  justifying  your  anger  by  their  misconduct; 
but  it  is  converting  your  ill-will  into  their  delinquency. 

76.  "But  the   colonies  will  go   further."     Alas! 
alas !  when  will  this  speculating  against  fact  and  rea 
son  end  ?     What  will  quiet  these  panic  fears  which  we 
entertain  of  the  hostile  effect  of  a  conciliatory  con 
duct  ?    Is  it  true  that  no  case  can  exist  in  which  it  is 
proper  for  the  sovereign  to  accede  to  the  desires  of  his 
discontented  subjects?    Is  there  anything  peculiar  in 


this  case  to  make  a  rule  for  itself?  Is  all  authority 
of  course  lost  when  it  is  not  pushed  to  the  extreme  ? 
Is  it  a  certain  maxim  that,  the  fewer  causes  of  dissatis 
faction  are  left  by  government,  the  more  the  subject 
will  be  inclined  to  resist  and  rebel  ? 

77.  All  these  objections  being  in  fact  no  more 
than  suspicions,  conjectures,  divinations,   formed  in 
defiance  of  fact  and  experience,  they  did  not,  Sir,  dis 
courage  me  from  entertaining  the  idea  of  a  conciliatory 
concession,  founded  on  the  principles  which  I  have  just 
stated. 

78.  In  forming  a  plan  for  this  purpose,  I  endeav 
ored  to  put  myself  in  that  frame  of  mind  which  was 
the  most  natural  and  the  most  reasonable,  and  which 
was  certainly  the  most  probable  means  of  securing  me 
from  all  error.    I  set  out  with  a  perfect  distrust  of  my 
own  abilities,  a  total  renunciation  of  every  speculation 
of  my  own ;  and  with  a  profound  reverence  for  the  wis 
dom  of  our  ancestors,  who  have  left  us  the  inheritance 
of  so  happy  a  Constitution  and  so  flourishing  an  em 
pire,  and,  what  is  a  thousand  times  more  valuable,  the 
treasury  of  the  maxims  and  principles  which  formed 
the  one  and  obtained  the  other. 

79.  During  the  reigns  of  the  kings  of  Spain  of  the 
Austrian  family,  whenever  they  were  at  a  loss  in  the 
Spanish  councils,  it  was  common  for  their  statesmen 
to  say  that  they  ought  to  consult  the  genius  of  Philip 
the  Second.    The  genius  of  Philip  the  Second  might 
mislead  them,  and  the  issue  of  their  affairs  showed 
that  they  had  not  chosen  the  most  perfect  standard. 
But,  Sir,  I  am  sure  that  I  shall  not  be  misled  when,  in 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  OX  CONCILIATION  89 

a  case  of  constitutional  difficulty,  I  consult  the  genius 
of  the  EnglisirConstitution.  Consulting  at  that  oracle 
—it  was  with  all  due  humility  and  piety — I  found  four 
capital  examples  in  a  similar  case  before  me :  those 
of  Ireland,  Wales,  Chester,  and  Durham. 

80.  Ireland,  before  the  English  conquest,  though 
never  governed  by  a  despotic  power,  had  no  parlia 
ment.  How  far  the  English  Parliament  itself  was  at 
that  time  modeled  according  to  the  present  form  is 
disputed  among  antiquarians.  But  we  have  all  the 
reason  in  the  world  to  be  assured  that  a  form  of  par 
liament  such  as  England  then  enjoyed  she  instantly 
communicated  to  Ireland;  and  we  are  equally  sure 
that  almost  every  successive  improvement  in  constitu 
tional  liberty,  as  fast  as  it  was  made  here,  was  trans 
mitted  thither.  The  feudal  baronage  and  the  feudal 
knighthood,  the  roots  of  our  primitive  constitution, 
were  early  transplanted  into  that  soil,  and  grew  and 
flourished  there.  Magna  Charta,  if  it  did  not  give  us 
originally  the  House  of  Commons,  gave  us  at  least  a 
House  of  Commons  of  weight  and  consequence.  But 
your  ancestors  did  not  churlishly  sit  down  alone  to 
the  feast  of  Magna  Charta.  Ireland  was  made  imme 
diately  a  partaker.  This  benefit  of  English  laws  and 
liberties,  I  confess,  was  not  at  first  extended  to  all 
Ireland.  Mark  the  consequence.  English  authority 
and  English  liberties  had  exactly  the  same  boundaries. 
Your  standard  could  never  be  advanced  an  inch  before 
your  privileges.  Sir  John  Davies  shows,  beyond  a 
doubt,  that  the  refusal  of  a  general  communication  of 
these  rights  was  the  true  cause  why  Ireland  was  five 


90  BUEKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

hundred  years  in  subduing ;  and  after  the  vain  projects 
of  a  military  government,  attempted  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  it  was  soon  discovered  that  nothing 
could  make  that  country  English  in  civility  and 
allegiance  but  your  laws  and  your  forms  of  legislature. 
It  was  not  English  arms,  but  the  English  Constitution, 
that  conquered  Ireland.  From  that  time  Ireland  has 
ever  had  a  general  parliament,  as  she  had  before  a 
partial  parliament.  You  changed  the  people;  you 
altered  the  religion ;  but  you  never  touched  the  form  or  \ 
the  vital  substance  of  free  government  in  that  king 
dom.  You  deposed  kings;  you  restored  them;  you 
altered  the  succession  to  theirs,  as  well  as  to  your  own 
crown;  but  you  never  altered  their  constitution,  the 
principle  of  which  was  respected  by  usurpation,  re 
stored  with  the  restoration  of  monarchy,  and  estab 
lished,  I  trust  for  ever,  by  the  glorious  Revolution. 
This  has  made  Ireland  the  great  and  flourishing  king 
dom  that  it  is;  and  from  a  disgrace  and  a  burthen 
intolerable  to  this  nation,  has  rendered  her  a  principal 
part  of  our  strength  and  ornament.  This  country  can 
not  be  said  to  have  ever  formally  taxed  her.  The  ir 
regular  things  done  in  the  confusion  of  mighty  trou 
bles,  and  on  the  hinge  of  great  revolutions,  even  if  all 
were  done  that  is  said  to  have  been  done,  form  no 
example.  If  they  have  any  effect  in  argument,  they 
make  an  exception  to  prove  the  rule.  None  of  your 
own  liberties  could  stand  a  moment  if  the  casual  devia 
tions  from  them  at  such  times  were  suffered  to  be  used 
as  proofs  of  their  nullity.  By  the  lucrative  amount 
of  such  casual  breaches  in  the  Constitution  judge  what 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  91 

the  stated  and  fixed  rule  of  supply  has  been  in  that 
kingdom.  Your  Irish  pensioners  would  starve  if  they 
had  no  other. fund  to  live  on  than  taxes  granted  by 
English  authority.  Turn  your  eyes  to  those  popular 
grants  from  whence  all  your  great  supplies  are  come, 
and  learn  to  respect  that  only  source  of  public  wealth 
in  the  British  Empire. 

81.  My  next  example  is  Wales.    This  country  was 
said  to  be  reduced  by  Henry  the  Third.    It  was  said 
more  truly  to  be  so  by  Edward  the  First.    But  though 
then  conquered,  it  was  not  looked  upon  as  any  part  of 
the  realm  of  England.    Its  old  constitution,  whatever 
that  might  have  been,  was  destroyed ;  and  no  good  one 
was  substituted  in  its  place.    The  care  of  that  tract 
was  put  into  the  hands  of  Lords  Marchers — a  form  of 
government  of  a  very  singular  kind,  a  strange  hetero 
geneous   monster,    something  between   hostility   and 
government ;  perhaps  it  has  a  sort  of  resemblance,  ac 
cording   to    the   modes   of   those    times,    to    that   of 
commander-in-chief  at  present,  to  whom  all  civil  power 
is  granted  as  secondary.    The  manners  of  the  Welsh 
nation  followed  the  genius  of  the  government:  the 
people  were  ferocious,  restive,  savage,  and  unculti 
vated;  sometimes  composed,  never  pacified.     Wales, 
within  itself,  was  in  perpetual  disorder;  and  it  kept 
the  frontier  of  England  in  perpetual  alarm.    Benefits 
from  it  to  the  state  there  were  none.    Wales  was  only 
known  to  England  by  incursion  and  invasion. 

82.  Sir,  during  that  state  of  things,  Parliament 
was  not  idle.     They  attempted  to  subdue  the  fierce 
spirit  of  the  Welsh  by  all  sorts  of  rigorous  laws.    They 


92  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

prohibited  by  statute  the  sending  all  sorts  of  arms  into 
Wales,  as  you  prohibit  by  proclamation — with  some 
thing  more  of  doubt  on  the  legality — the  .sending  arms 
to  America.  They  disarmed  the  Welsh  by  statute,  as 
you  attempted — but  still  with  more  question  on  the 
legality — to  disarm  New  England  by  an  instruction. 
They  made  an  act  to  drag  offenders  from  Wales  into 
England  for  trial,  as  you  have  done — but  with  more 
hardship — with  regard  to  America.  By  another  act, 
where  one  of  the  parties  was  an  Englishman  they 
ordained  that  his  trial  should  be  always  by  English. 
They  made  acts  to  restrain  trade,  as  you  do ;  and  they 
prevented  the  Welsh  from  the  use  of  fairs  and  mar 
kets,  as  you  do  the  Americans  from  fisheries  and  for 
eign  ports.  In  short,  when  the  statute-book  was  not 
quite  so  much  swelled  as  it  is  now,  you  find  no  less  than 
fifteen  acts  of  penal  regulation  on  the  subject  of  Wales. 

83.  Here  we  rub  our  hands — "A  fine  body  of 
precedents  for  the  authority  of  Parliament  and  the 
use  of  it!"    I  admit  it  fully;  and  pray  add  likewise 
to  these  precedents  that  all  the  while  Wales  rid  this 
kingdom  like  an  incubus,  that  it  was  an  unprofitable 
and  oppressive  burthen,  and  that  an  Englishman  trav 
eling  in  that  country  could  not  go  six  yards  from  the 
high  road  without  being*  murdered. 

84.  The  march  of  the  human  mind  is  slow.    Sir, 
it  was  not  until  after  two  hundred  years  discovered 
that,  by  an  eternal  law,  providence  had  decreed  vexa 
tion  to  violence,  and  poverty  to  rapine.    Your  ances 
tors  did,  however,  at  length  open  their  eyes  to  the  ill 
husbandry  of  injustice.    They  found  that  the  tyranny 


BURKE  ?S  SPEECH  OX  CONCILIATION  93 

of  a  free  people  could  of  all  tyrannies  the  least  be 
endured,  and  that  laws  made  against  a  whole  nation 
were  not  the  most  effectual  methods  for  securing  its 
obedience.  Accordingly,  in  the  twenty-seventh  year 
of  Henry  the  Eighth,  the  course  was  entirely  altered. 
"With  a  preamble  stating  the  entire  and  perfect  rights 
of  the  crown  of  England,  it  gave  to  the  Welsh  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  English  subjects.  A  political 
order  was  established ;  the  military  power  gave  way  to 
the  civil ;  the  marches  were  turned  into  counties.  But 
that  a  nation  should  have  a  right  to  English  liberties, 
and  yet  no  share  at  all  in  the  fundamental  security  of 
these  liberties — the  grant  of  their  own  property — 
seemed  a,  thing  so  incongruous  that,  eight  years  after 
— that  is,  in  the  thirty-fifth  of  that  reign^-a  complete 
and  not  ill-proportioned  representation  by  counties 
and  boroughs  was  bestowed  upon  "Wales  by  act  of 
Parliament.  From  that  moment,  as  by  a  charm,  the 
tumults  subsided;  obedience  was  restored;  peace,  or 
der,  and  civilization  followed  in  the  train  of  liberty. 
"When  the  day-star  of  the  English  Constitution  had 
arisen  in  their  hearts,  all  was  harmony  within  and 
without. 

Simul  alba  nautis 
Stella  refulsit, 
Defluit  saxis  agitatus  umor, 
Concidunt    venti,    fugiuntque    nubes, 
Et  minax  (quod  sic  voluere)  ponto 
Unda  recumbit. 

85,     The  very  same  year  the  County  Palatine  of 
Chester  received  the  same  relief  from  its  oppressions, 


94  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

and  the  same  remedy  to  its  disorders.  Before  this  time 
Chester  was  little  less  distempered  than  Wales.  The 
inhabitants,  without  rights  themselves,  were  the  fittest 
to  destroy  the  rights  of  others ;  and  from  thence  Rich 
ard  the  Second  drew  the  standing  army  of  archers  with 
which  for  a  time  he  oppressed  England.  The  people 
of  Chester  applied  to  Parliament  in  a  petition  penned 
as  I  shall  read  to  you : 

To  the  King  our  Sovereign  Lord,  in  most  humble 
wise  she  wen  unto  your  most  excellent  Majesty  the  in 
habitants  of  your  Grace's  County  Palatine  of  Chester: 

(1)  That  where  the  said  County  Palatine  of  Chester  is 
and  hath  been  alway  hitherto  exempt,  excluded,  and 
separated  out  and  from  your  high  court  of  Parliament, 
to  have   any  knights  and  burgesses   within  the  said 
court;    by  reason  whereof  the   said  inhabitants  have 
hitherto    sustained    manifold    disherisons,    losses,    and 
damages,  as  well  in  their  lands,  goods,  and  bodies,  as 
in  the  good,  civil,  and  politic  governance  and  main 
tenance  of  the  commonwealth  of  their  said  county  j 

(2)  and  forasmuch  as  the  said  inhabitants  have  always 
hitherto  been  bound  by  the  acts  and  statutes  made  and 
ordained  by  your  said  Highness  and  your  most  noble 
progenitors,  by  authority  of  the  said  court,  as  far  forth 
as  other  counties,  cities,  and  boroughs  have  been,  that 
have  had  their  knights  and  burgesses  within  your  said 
court  of  Parliament,  and  yet  have  had  neither  knight 
ne  burgess  there  for  the  said  County  Palatine ;  the  said 
inhabitants,   for   lack   thereof,   have   been   oftentimes 
touched  and  grieved  with  acts  and  statutes  made  with 
in  the  said  court,  as  well  derogatory  unto  the  most 
ancient  jurisdictions,  liberties,  and  privileges  of  your 
said  County  Palatine,  as  prejudicial  unto  the  common 
wealth,  quietness,  rest,  and  peace  of  your  Grace 's  most 
bounden  subjects  inhabiting  within  the  same. 


BUEKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  95 

86.  What  did  Parliament  with  this  audacious  ad 
dress?    Reject  it  as  a  libel?    Treat  it  as  an  affront  to 
government  ?    Spurn  it  as  a  derogation  from  the  rights 
of  legislature  ?    Did  they  toss  it  over  the  table  ?    Did 
they  burn  it  by  the  hands  of  the  common  hangman? 
They  took  the  petition  of  grievance,  all  rugged  as  it 
was,  without  softening  or  temperament,  unpurged  of 
the  original  bitterness  and  indignation  of  complaint; 
they  made  it  the  very  preamble  to  their  act  of  redress, 
and  consecrated  its  principle  to  all  ages  in  the  sanctu 
ary  of  legislation. 

87.  Here  is  my  third  example.    It  was  attended 
with  the  success  of  the  two  former.    Chester,  civilized 
as  well  as  Wales,  has  demonstrated  that  freedom,  and 
not  servitude,  is  the  cure  of  anarchy ;  as  religion,  and 
not  atheism,  is  the  true  remedy  for  superstitition. 
Sir,  this  pattern  of  Chester  was  followed  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  the  Second  with  regard  to  the  County  Pal 
atine  of  Durham,  which  is  my  fourth  example.    This 
county  had  long  lain  out  of  the  pale  of  free  legislation. 
So  scrupulously  was  the  example  of  Chester  followed, 
that  the  style  of  the  preamble  is  nearly  the  same  with 
that  of  the  Chester  Act;  and,  without  affecting  the 
abstract  extent  of  the  authority  of  Parliament,  it  recog 
nizes  the  equity  of  not  suffering  any  considerable  dis 
trict,  in  which  the  British  subjects  may  act  as  a  body, 
to  be  taxed  without  their  own  voice  in  the  grant. 

88.  Now  if  the  doctrines  of  policy  contained  in 
these  preambles,  and  the  force  of  these  examples  in 
the  acts  of  Parliament,  avail  anything,  what  can  be 
said  against  applying  them  with  regard  to  America? 


96  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

Are  not  the  people  of  America  as  much  Englishmen 
as  the  Welsh  ?  The  preamble  of  the  act  of  Henry  the 
Eighth  says  the  Welsh  speaks  a  language  no  way  re 
sembling  that  of  his  Majesty's  English  subjects.  Are 
the  Americans  not  as  numerous?  If  we  may  trust 
the  learned  and  accurate  Judge  Harrington's  account 
of  North  Wales,  and  take  that  as  a  standard  to  meas 
ure  the  rest,  there  is  no  comparison.  The  people  can 
not  amount  to  above  200,000 — not  a  tenth  part  of  the 
number  in  the  colonies.  Is  America  in  rebellion? 
Wales  was  hardly  ever  free  from  it.  Have  you  at 
tempted  to  govern  America  by  penal  statutes?  You 
made  fifteen  for  Wales.  But  your  '  *  legislative  author 
ity  is  perfect  with  regard  to  America."  Was  it  less 
perfect  in  Wales,  Chester,  and  Durham  ?  But  '  *  Amer 
ica  is  virtually  represented. ' '  What !  does  the  electric 
force  of  virtual  representation  more  easily  pass  over 
the  Atlantic  than  pervade  Wales,  which  lies  in  your 
neighborhood,  or  than  Chester  and  Durham,  sur 
rounded  by  abundance  of  representation  that  is  actual 
and  palpable  ?  But,  Sir,  your  ancestors  thought  this 
sort  of  virtual  representation,  however  ample,  to  be 
totally  insufficient  for  the  freedom  of  the  inhabitants 
of  territories  that  are  so  near,  and  comparatively  so 
inconsiderable.  How  then  can  I  think  it  sufficient 
for  those  which  are  infinitely  greater  and  infinitely 
more  remote  ? 

89.  You  will  now,  Sir,  perhaps  imagine  that  I  am 
on  the  point  of  proposing  to  you  a  scheme  for  a  repre 
sentation  of  the  colonies  in  Parliament.  Perhaps  I 
might  be  inclined  to  entertain  some  such  thought ;  but 


BUEKE  'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  97 

a  great  flood  stops  me  in  my  course.  Opposuit  natura. 
I  cannot  remove  the  eternal  barriers  of  the  creation. 
The  thing,  in  that  mode,  I  do  not  know  to  be  possible. 
As  I  meddle  with  no  theory,  I  do  not  absolutely  assert 
the  impracticability  of  such  a  representation.  But  I 
do  not  see  my  way  to  it ;  and  those  who  have  been  more 
confident  have  not  been  more  successful.  However, 
the  arm  of  public  benevolence  is  not  shortened;  and 
there  are  often  several  means  to  the  same  end.  What 
nature  has  disjoined  in  one  way  wisdom  may  unite  in 
another.  When  we  cannot  give  the  benefit  as  we  would 
wish,  let  us  not  refuse  it  altogether.  If  we  cannot  give 
the  principal,  let  us  find  a  substitute.  But  how? 
Where  ?  What  substitute  ? 

90.  Fortunately  I  am  not  obliged  for  the  ways 
and  means  of  this  substitute  to  tax  my  own  unpro 
ductive  invention.  I  am  not  even  obliged  to  go  to  the 
rich  treasury  of  the  fertile  framers  of  imaginary  com 
monwealths:  not  to  the  Republic  of  Plato,  not  to  the 
Utopia  of  More,  not  to  the  Oceana  of  Harrington.  It 
is  before  me ;  it  is  at  my  feet, 

and  the  rude  swain 
Treads  daily  on  it  with  his  clouted  shoon. 

I  only  wish  you  to  recognize,  for  the  theory,  the  an 
cient  constitutional  policy  of  this  kingdom  with  regard 
to  representation,  as  that  policy  has  been  declared  in 
acts  of  Parliament ;  and,  as  to  the  practice,  to  return 
to  that  mode  which  a  uniform  experience  has  marked 
out  to  you  as  best,  and  in  which  you  walked  with 
security,  advantage,  and  honor,  until  the  year  1763* 


98  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

91.  My  resolutions  therefore  mean  to  establish  the 
equity  and  justice  of  a  taxation  of  America  by  grant, 
and  not  by  imposition;  to  mark  the  legal  competency 
of  the  colony  assemblies  for  the  support  of  their  gov-  • 
ernment  in  peace,  and  for  public  aids  in  time  of  war ; 
to  acknowledge  that  this  legal  competency  has  had  a 
dutiful  and  beneficial  exercise;  and  that  experience 
has  shown  the  benefit  of  their  grants,  and  the  futility 
of  parliamentary  taxation  as  a  method  of  supply. 

92.  These  solid  truths  compose  six  fundamental 
propositions.       There    are    three    more    resolutions 
corollary  to  these.    If  you  admit  the  first  set,  you  can 
hardly  reject  the  others.    But  if  you  admit  the  first, 
I  shall  be  far  from  solicitous  whether  you  accept  or 
refuse  the  last.    I  think  these  six  massive  pillars  will 
be  of  strength  sufficient  to  support  the  temple  of  Brit 
ish  concord.     I  have  no  more  doubt  than  I  entertain 
of  my  existence  that,  if  you  admitted  these,  you  would 
command  an  immediate  peace ;  and,  with  but  tolerable 
future  management,  a  lasting  obedience  in  America. 
I  am  not  arrogant  in  this  confident  assurance.     The 
propositions  are  all  mere  matters  of  fact ;  and  if  they 
are  such  facts  as  draw  irresistible  conclusions  even  in 
the  stating,  this  is  the  power  of  truth,  and  not  any 
management  of  mine. 

93.  Sir,  I  shall  open  the  whole  plan  to  you,  to 
gether  with  such  observations  on  the  motions  as  may 
tend  to  illustrate  them  where  they  may  want  explana 
tion.    The  first  is  a  resolution : 

That  the  colonies  and  plantations  of  Great  Britain 
in    North    America,    consisting   of    fourteen    separate 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  99 

governments,  and  containing  two  millions  and  upwards 
of  free  inhabitants,  have  not  had  the  liberty  and  privi 
lege  of  electing  and  sending  any  knights  and  burgesses, 
or  others,  to  represent  them  in  the  high  court  of  Parlia 
ment. 

This  is  a  plain  matter  of  fact,  necessary  to  be  laid 
down,  and — excepting  the  description — it  is  laid  down 
in  the  language  of  the  Constitution ;  it  is  taken  nearly 
verbatim  from  acts  of  Parliament. 

94.  The  second  is  like  unto  the  first : 

That  the  said  colonies  and  plantations  have  been 
liable  to,  and  bounden  by,  several  subsidies,  payments, 
rates,  and  taxes,  given  and  granted  by  Parliament, 
though  the  said  colonies  and  plantations  have  not  their 
knights  and  burgesses  in  the  said  high  court  of  Parlia 
ment,  of  their  own  election,  to  represent  the  condition 
of  their  country;  by  lack  whereof  they  have  been  often 
times  touched  and  grieved  by  subsidies  given,  granted, 
and  assented  to  in  the  said  court,  in  a  manner  preju 
dicial  to  the  common  wealth,  quietness,  rest,  and  peace 
of  the  subjects  inhabiting  within  the  same. 

95.  Is  this  description  too  hot  or  too  cold,  too 
strong  or  too  weak  ?    Does  it  arrogate  too  much  to  the 
supreme  legislature?    Does  it  lean  too  much  to  the 
claims  of  the  people  ?    If  it  runs  into  any  of  these  er 
rors,  the  fault  is  not  mine.    It  is  the  language  of  your 
own  ancient  acts  of  Parliament : 

Non  meus  hie  sermo,  sed  quae  pra3cepit  Ofellus, 
Eusticus,  abnormis  sapiens. 

It  is  the  genuine  produce  of  the  ancient,  rustic,  manly, 
home-bred  sense  of  this  country.  I  did  not  dare  to 
rub  off  a  particle  of  the  venerable  rust  that  rather 


100          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

adorns  and  preserves  than  destroys  the  metal.  It 
would  be  a  profanation  to  touch  with  a  tool  the  stones 
which  construct  the  sacred  altar  of  peace.  I  would  not 
violate  with  modern  polish  the  ingenuous  and  noble 
roughness  of  these  truly  constitutional  materials. 
Above  all  things,  I  was  resolved  not  to  be  guilty  of 
tampering — the  odious  vice  of  restless  and  unstable 
minds.  I  put  my  foot  in  the  tracks  of  our  forefathers, 
where  I  can  neither  wander  nor  stumble.  Determining 
to  fix  articles  of  peace,  I  was  resolved  not  to  be  wise 
beyond  what  was  written ;  I  was  resolved  to  use  noth 
ing  else  than  the  form  of  sound  words;  to  let  others 
abound  in  their  own  sense,  and  carefully  to  abstain 
from  all  expressions  of  my  own.  What  the  law  has 
said  I  say.  In  all  things  else  I  am  silent.  I  have  no 
organ  but  for  her  words.  This,  if  it  be  not  ingenious, 
I  am  sure  is  safe. 

96.  There  are  indeed  words  expressive  of  griev 
ance  in  this  second  resolution,  which  those  who  are 
resolved  always  to  be  in  the  right  will  deny  to  contain 
matter  of  fact  as  applied  to  the  present  case,  although 
Parliament  thought  them  true  with  regard  to  the  coun 
ties  of  Chester  and  Durham.  They  will  deny  that  the 
Americans  were  ever  "touched  and  grieved"  with  the 
taxes.  If  they  consider  nothing  in  taxes  but  their 
weight  as  pecuniary  impositions,  there  might  be  some 
pretense  for  this  denial.  But  men  may  be  sorely 
touched  and  deeply  grieved  in  their  privileges  as  well 
as  in  their  purses.  Men  may  lose  little  in  property  by 
the  act  which  takes  away  all  their  freedom.  When  a 
man  is  robbed  of  a  trifle  on  the  highway,  it  is  not  the 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCIIATION:  rVljjtt; 

twopence  lost  that  constitutes  the  capital  outrage. 
This  is  not  confined  to  privileges.  Even  ancient  indul 
gences  withdrawn,  without  offense  on  the  part  of  those 
who  enjoyed  such  favors,  operate  as  grievances.  But 
were  the  Americans,  then,  not  touched  and  grieved  by 
the  taxes,  in  some  measure,  merely  as  taxes?  If  so, 
why  were  they  almost  all  either  wholly  repealed  or 
exceedingly  reduced?  Were,  they  not  touched  and 
grieved  even  by  the  regulating  duties  of  the  sixth  of 
George  the  Second?  Else  why  were  the  duties  first 
reduced  to  one-third  in  1764,  and  afterwards  to  a 
third  of  that  third  in  the  year  1766  ?  Were  they  not 
touched  and  grieved  by  the  Stamp  Act?  I  shall  say 
they  were,  until  that  tax  is  revived.  Were  they  not 
touched  and  grieved  by  the  duties  of  1767,  which  were 
likewise  repealed,  and  which  Lord  Hillsborough  tells 
you — for  the  ministry! — were  laid  contrary  to  the  true 
principle  of  commerce?  Is  not  the  assurance  given 
by  that  noble  person  to  the  colonies  of  a  resolution  to 
lay  no  more  taxes  on  them  an  admission  that  taxes 
would  touch  and  grieve  them?  Is  not  the  resolution 
of  the  noble  lord  in  the  blue  ribbon,  now  standing  on 
your  journals,  the  strongest  of  all  proofs  that  parlia 
mentary  subsidies  really  touched  and  grieved  them? 
Else  why  all  these  changes,  modifications,  repeals,  as 
surances,  and  resolutions  ? 
97.  The  next  proposition  is : 

That,  from  the  distance  of  the  said  colonies,  and 
from  other  circumstances,  no  method  hath  hitherto  been 
devised  for  procuring  a  representation  in  Parliament 
for  the  said  colonies. 


1Q2          BURKS 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

This  is  an  assertion  of  a  fact.  I  go  no  further  on  the 
paper,  though,  in  my  private  judgment,  a  useful  repre 
sentation  is  impossible ;  I  am  sure  it  is  not  desired  by 
them,  nor  ought  it  perhaps  by  us — but  I  abstain  from 
opinions. 

98.  The  fourth  resolution  is : 

That  each  of  the  said  colonies  hath  within  itself  a 
body,  chosen,  in  part  or  in  the  whole,  by  the  freemen, 
freeholders,  or  other  free  inhabitants  thereof,  com 
monly  called  the  General  Assembly,  or  General  Court; 
with  powers  legally  to  raise,  levy,  and  assess,  according 
to  the  several  usage  of  such  colonies,  duties  and  taxes 
towards  defraying  all  sorts  of  public  services. 

99.  This  competence  in  the  colony  assemblies  is 
certain.    It  is  proved  by  the  whole  tenor  of  their  acts 
of  supply  in  all  the  assemblies,  in  which  the  constant 
style  of  granting  is  "an  aid  to  his  Majesty";  and  acts 
granting  to  the  crown  have  regularly  for  near  a  cen 
tury  passed  the  public  offices  without  dispute.    Those 
who  have  been  pleased  paradoxically  to  deny  this 
right,  holding  that  none  but  the  British  Parliament 
can  grant  to  the  crown,  are  wished  to  look  to  what  is 
done,  not  only  in  the  colonies,  but  in  Ireland,  in  one 
uniform,  unbroken  tenor  every  session.     Sir,  I   am 
surprised  that  this  doctrine  should  come  from  some  of 
the  law  servants  of  the  crown.    I  say  that  if  the  crown 
could  be  responsible,  his  Majesty — but  certainly  the 
ministers,    and   even   these   law    officers   themselves, 
through  whose  hands  the  acts  pass  biennially  in  Ire 
land,  or  annually  in  the  colonies,  are  in  an  habitual 
course   of   committing  impeachable  offenses.    What 


BURKE  1S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  103 

habitual  offenders  have  been  all  presidents  of  the  coun 
cil,  all  secretaries  of  state,  all  first  lords  of  trade,  all 
attorneys  and  all  solicitors  general!  However,  they 
are  safe,  as  no  one  impeaches  them ;  and  there  is  no 
ground  of  charge  against  them,  except  in  their  own 
unfounded  theories. 

100.  The  fifth  resolution  is  also  a  resolution  of  fact : 
That  the  said  general  assemblies,  general  courts,  or 

other  bodies  legally  qualified  as  aforesaid,  have  at  sun 
dry  times  freely  granted  several  large  subsidies  and 
public  aids  for  his  Majesty's  service,  according  to  their 
abilities,  when  required  thereto  by  letter  from  one  of 
his  Majesty's  principal  secretaries  of  state;  and  that 
their  right  to  grant  the  same,  and  their  cheerfulness 
and  sufficiency  in  the  said  grants,  have  been  at  sundry 
times  acknowledged  by  Parliament. 

To  say  nothing  of  their  great  expenses  in  the  Indian 
wars,  and  not  to  take  their  exertion  in  foreign  ones 
so  high  as  the  supplies  in  the.  year  1695,  not  to  go  back 
to  their  public  contributions  in  the  year  1710 — I  shall 
begin  to  travel  only  where  the  journals  give  me  light, 
resolving  to  deal  in  nothing  but  fact,  authenticated  by 
parliamentary  record,  and  to  build  myself  wholly  on 
that  solid  basis. 

101.  On  the  4th  of  April,  1748,  a  committee  of  this 
House  came  to  the  following  resolution : 

Resolved :  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  Committee 
that  it  is  just  and  reasonable  that  the  several  provinces 
and  colonies  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  New  Hampshire, 
Connecticut,  and  Khode  Island  be  reimbursed  the  ex 
penses  they  have  been  at  in  taking  and  securing  to 
the  crown  of  Great  Britain  the  Island  of  Cape  Breton 
and  its  dependencies. 


134  EUEKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

These  expenses  were  immense  for  such  colonies.  They 
were  above  £200,000  sterling — money  first  raised  and 
advanced  on  their  public  credit. 

102.  On  the   28th   of  January,   1756,   a  message 
from  the  king  came  to  us,  to  this  effect : 

His  Majesty,  being  sensible  of  the  zeal  and  vigor 
with  which  his  faithful  subjects  of  certain  colonies 
in  North  America  have  exerted  themselves  in  defense  of 
his  Majesty's  just  rights  and  possessions,  recommends 
it  to  this  House  to  take  the  same  into  their  considera 
tion,  and  to  enable  his  Majesty  to  give  them  such  as 
sistance  as  may  be  a  proper  reward  and  encouragement. 

103.  On  the  3rd  of  February,  1756,  the  House 
came  to   a  suitable   resolution,   expressed  in  words 
nearly  the  same  as  those  of  the  message,  but  with  the 
further  addition  that  the  money  then  voted  was  an 
encouragement  to  the  colonies  to  exert  themselves  with 
vigor.    It  will  not  be  necessary  to  go  through  all  the 
testimonies  which  your  own  records  have  given  to  the 
truth  of  my  resolutions;  I  will  only  refer  you  to  the 
places  in  the  journals : 

Vol.  xxvii.— 16th  and  19th  May,  1757. 

Vol.  xxviii.— June  1st,  1758 ;  April  26th  and  30th, 

1759 ;  March  26th  and  31st,  and  April  28th,  1760 ; 

Jan.  9th  and  20th,  1761. 
Vol.  xxix.— Jan.  22nd  and  26th,  1762 ;  March  14th 

and  17th,  1763. 

104.  Sir,  here  is  the  repeated  acknowledgment  of 
Parliament  that  the  colonies  not  only  gave,  but  gave 
to  satiety.     This  nation  has  formerly  acknowledged 
two  things :  first,  that  the  colonies  had  gone  beyond 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  105 

their  abilities,  Parliament  having  thought  it  necessary 
to  reimburse  them;  secondly,  that  they  had  acted 
legally  and  laudably  in  their  grants  of  money  and 
their  maintenance  of  troops,  since  the  compensation  is 
expressly  given  as  reward  and  encouragement.  Re 
ward  is  not  bestowed  for  acts  that  are  unlawful,  and 
encouragement  is  not  held  out  to  things  that  deserve 
reprehension.  My  resolution  therefore  does  nothing 
more  than  collect  into  one  proposition  what  is  scat 
tered  through  your  journals.  I  give  you  nothing  but 
your  own;  and  you  cannot  refuse  in  the  gross  what 
you  have  so  often  acknowledged  in  detail.  The  ad 
mission  of  this,  which  will  be  so  honorable  to  them  and 
to  you,  will  indeed  be  mortal  to  all  the  miserable  stories 
by  which  the  passions  of  the  misguided  people  have 
been  engaged  in  an  unhappy  system.  The  people 
heard  indeed,  from  the  beginning  of  these  disputes, 
one  thing  continually  dinned  in  their  ears :  ' '  that  rea 
son  and  justice  demanded  that  the  Americans,  who 
paid  110  taxes,  should  be  compelled  to  contribute. " 
How  did  that  fact  of  their  paying  nothing  stand  when 
the  taxing  system  began  ?  When  Mr.  Grenville  began 
to  form  his  system  of  American  revenue,  he  stated  in 
this  House  that  the  colonies  were  then  in  debt  two 
million  six  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling  money, 
and  was  of  opinion  they  would  discharge  that  debt  in 
four  years.  On  this  state  those  uiitaxed  people  were 
actually  subject  to  the  payment  of  taxes  to  the  amount 
of  six  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  a  year.  In  fact, 
however,  Mr.  Grenville  was  mistaken. »  The  funds 
given  for  sinking  the  debt  did  not  prove  quite  so  am- 


106          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

pie  as  both  the  colonies  and  he  expected.  The  calcu 
lation  was  too  sanguine;  the  reduction  was  not  com 
pleted  till  some  years  after,  and  at  different  times  in 
different  colonies.  However,  the  taxes  after  the  war 
continued  too  great  to  bear  any  addition  with  prudence 
or  propriety ;  and  when  the  burthens  imposed  in  con 
sequence  of  former  requisitions  were  discharged,  our 
tone  became  too  high  to  resort  again  to  requisition. 
No  colony,  since  that  time,  ever  has  had  any  requisi 
tion  whatsoever  made  to  it. 

105.  We  see  the  sense  of  the  crown,  and  the  sense 
of  Parliament,  on  the  productive  nature  of  a  revenue 
by  grant.    Now  search  the  same  journals  for  the  pro 
duce  of  the  revenue  ~by  imposition.    Where  is  it  ?    Let 
us  know  the  volume  and  the  page.    What  is  the  gross, 
what  is  the  net  produce  ?    To  what  service  is  it  applied  ? 
How  have  you  appropriated  its  surplus  ?    What !  can 
none  of  the  many  skilful  index-makers  that  we  are 
now  employing  find  any  trace  of  it?    Well,  let  them 
and  that  rest  together.    But  are  the  journals,  which 
say  nothing  of  the  revenue,  as  silent  on  the  discontent  ? 
Oh,  no !  a  child  may  find  it.     It  is  the  melancholy 
burthen  and  blot  of  every  page. 

106.  I  think,  then,  I  am,  from  those  journals,  jus 
tified  in  the  sixth  and  last  resolution,  which  is : 

That  it  hath  been  found  by  experience  that  the  man 
ner  of  granting  the  said  supplies  and  aids  by  the  said 
general  assemblies  hath  been  more  agreeable  to  the 
said  colonies,  and  more  beneficial  and  conducive  to  the 
public  service,  than  the  mode  of  giving  and  granting 
aids  in  Parliament,  to  be  raised  and  paid  in  the  said 
colonies. 


BUBKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  1Q7 

107.  This  makes  the  whole  of  the  fundamental 
part  of  the  plan.    The  conclusion  is  irresistible.    You 
cannot  say  that  you  were  driven  by  any  necessity  to 
an  exercise  of  the  utmost  rights  of  legislature.     You 
cannot  assert  that  you  took  on  yourselves  the  task  of 
imposing  colony  taxes  from  the  want  of  another  legal 
body  that  is  competent  to  the  purpose  of  supplying 
the  exigencies  of  the   State  without   wounding  the 
prejudices  of  the  people.    Neither  is  it  true  that  the 
body  so  qualified  and  having  that  competence  had 
neglected  the  duty. 

108.  The  question  now  on  all  this  accumulated 
matter  is  whether  you  will  choose  to  abide  by  a  profit 
able  experience,  or  a  mischievous  theory ;  whether  you 
choose  to  build  on  imagination,  or  fact ;  whether  you 
prefer  enjoyment,  or  hope;  satisfaction  in  your  sub 
jects,  or  discontent. 

109.  If  these   propositions   are   accepted,   every 
thing  which  has  been  made  to  enforce  a  contrary  sys 
tem  must,  I  take  it  for  granted,  fall  along  with  it. 
On  that  ground  I  have  drawn  the  following  resolu 
tion,  which,  when  it  comes  to  be  moved,  will  naturally 
be  divided  in  a  proper  manner : 

That  it  may  be  proper  to  repeal  an  act  made  in  the 
seventh  year  of  the  reign  of  his  present  Majesty,  inti 
tuled:  An  act  for  granting  certain  duties  in  tlie  British 
colonies  and  plantations  in  America;  for  allowing  a 
drawback  of  the  duties  of  customs  upon  the  exportation 
from  this  kingdom  of  coffee  and  cocoa-nuts  of  the  pro 
duce  of  the  said  colonies  or  plantations;  for  discontinu 
ing  the  drawbacks  payable  on  China  earthenware  ex 
ported  to  America;  and  for  more  effectually  preventing 


108          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

the  clandestine  running  of  goods  in  the  said  colonies 
and  plantations.  And  that  it  may  be  proper  to  repeal 
an  act  made  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  the  reign  of  his 
present  Majesty,  intituled:  An  act  to  discontinue,  in 
such  manner  and  for  such  time  as  are  therein  men 
tioned,  the  landing  and  discharging,  lading  or  ship 
ping,  of  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise  at  the  town  and 
within  the  harbor  of  Boston,  in  the  Province  of  Massa 
chusetts  Bay,  in  North  America.  And  that  it  may  be 
proper  to  repeal  an  act  made  in  the  fourteenth  year  of 
the  reign  of  his  present  Majesty,  intituled:  An  act  for 
the  impartial  administration  of  justice,  in  the  cases 
of  persons  questioned  for  any  acts  done  by  them  in  the 
execution  of  the  law,  or  for  the  suppression  of  riots 
and  tumults,  in  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  in 
New  England.  And  that  it  may  be  proper  to  repeal 
an  act,  made  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  the  reign  of  his 
present  Majesty,  intituled:  An  act  for  the  better  regu 
lating  the  government  of  the  Province  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  Bay,  in  New  England.  And  also  that  it  may 
be  proper  to  explain  and  amend  an  act  made  in  the 
thirty-fifth  year  of  the  reign  of  King  Henry  the 
Eighth,  intituled:  An  act  for  the  trial  of  treasons  com 
mitted  out  of  the  King's  dominions. 

110.  I  wish,  Sir,  to  repeal  the  Boston  Port  Bill, 
because — independently  of  the  dangerous  precedent  of 
suspending  the  rights  of  the  subject  during  the  King's 
pleasure — it  was  passed,  as  I  apprehend,  with  less 
regularity,  and  on  more  partial  principles,  than  it 
ought.  The  corporation  of  Boston  was  not  heard  be 
fore  it  was  condemned.  Other  towns,  full  as  guilty  as 
she  was,  have  not  had  their  ports  blocked  up.  Even 
the  Restraining  Bill  of  the  present  session  does  not 
go  to  the  length  of  the  Boston  Port  Act.  The  same 


BUKKE'S  SPEECH  OX  COXCILIATIOX  1Q9 

ideas  of  prudence  which  induced  you  not  to  extend 
equal  punishment  to  equal  guilt,  even  when  you  were 
punishing,  induced  me — who  mean  not  to  chastise,  but 
to  reconcile — to  be  satisfied  with  the  punishment 
already  partially  inflicted. 

111.  Ideas   of   prudence   and   accommodation   to 
circumstances  prevent  you  from  taking  away  the  char 
ters  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  as  you  have 
taken  away  that  of  Massachusetts  Colony,  though  the 
crown  has  far  less  power  in  the  two  former  provinces 
than  it  enjoyed  in  the  latter,  and  though  the  abuses 
have  been  fully  as  great  and  as  flagrant  in  the  ex 
empted  as  in  the  punished.     The  same  reasons   of 
prudence  and  accommodation  have  weight  with  me 
in  restoring  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  Bay.     Be 
sides,  Sir,  the  act  which  changes  the  charter  of  Massa 
chusetts  is  in  many  particulars  so  exceptionable  that, 
if  I  did  not  wish  absolutely  to  repeal,  I  would  by  all 
means  desire  to  alter  it,  as  several  of  its  provisions 
tend  to  the  subversion  of  all  public  and  private  jus 
tice.    Such,  among  others,  is  the  power  in  the  governor 
to  change  the  sheriff  at  his  pleasure,  and  to  make  a 
new  returning-officer  for  every  special  cause.     It  is 
shameful  to  behold  such  a  regulation  standing  among 
English  laws. 

112.  The  act  for  bringing  persons  accused  of  com 
mitting  murder  under  the  orders  of  government  to 
England  for  trial  is  but  temporary.     That  act  has 
calculated  the  probable  duration  of  our  quarrel  with 
•the  colonies,  and  is  accommodated  to  that  supposed 
duration.    I  would  hasten  the  happy  moment  of  recon- 


HO  BUEKE'S  SPEECH.  ON  CONCILIATION 

ciliation,  and  therefore  must,  on  my  principle,  get  rid 
of  that  most  justly  obnoxious  act. 

113.  The  act  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  for  the  trial  of 
treasons,  I  do  not  mean  to  take  away,  but  to  confine  it 
to  its  proper  bounds  and  original  intention;  to  make 
it  expressly  for  trial  of  treasons — and  the  greatest 
treasons  may  be  committed — in  places  where  the,  juris 
diction  of  the  crown  does  not  extend. 

114.  Having  guarded  the  privileges  of  local  legis 
lature,  I  would  next  secure  to  the  colonies  a  fair  and 
unbiased  judicature,  for  which  purpose,  Sir,  I  propose 
the  following  resolution : 

That,  from  the  time  when  the  general  assembly  or 
general  court  of  any  colony  or  plantation  in  North 
America  shall  have  appointed,  by  act  of  assembly  duly 
confirmed,  a  settled  salary  to  the  offices  of  the  chief 
justice  and  other  judges  of  the  superior  court,  it  may 
be  proper  that  the  said  chief  justice  and  other  judges 
of  the  superior  courts  of  such  colony  shall  hold  his  and 
their  office  and  offices  during  their  good  behavior;  and 
shall  not  be  removed  therefrom  but  when  the  said 
removal  shall  be  adjudged  by  his  Majesty  in  council, 
upon  a  hearing  on  complaint  from  the  general  assembly, 
or  on  a  complaint  from  the  governor,  or  council,  or  the 
house  of  representatives  severally,  of  the  colony  in 
which  the  said  chief  justice  and  other  judges  have 
exercised  the  said  offices. 

115.  The  next  resolution  relates  to  the  courts  of 
admiralty.    It  is  this : 

That  it  may  be  proper  to  regulate  the  courts  of 
admiralty,  or  vice-admiralty,  authorized  by  the  fif 
teenth  chapter  of  the  fourth  of  George  the  Third,  in 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  m 

such  a  manner  as  to  make  the  same  more  commodious 
to  those  who  sue  or  are  sued  in  the  said  courts,  and  to 
provide  for  the  more  decent  maintenance  of  the  judges 
in  the  same. 

116.  These  courts  I  do  not  wish  to  take  away; 
they  are  in  themselves  proper  establishments.     This 
court  is  one  of  the  capital  securities  of  the  Act  of  Navi 
gation.     The  extent  of  its  jurisdiction,  indeed,  has 
been  increased ;  but  this  is  altogether  as  proper,  and  is 
indeed  on  many  accounts  more  eligible,  where  new 
powers  were  wanted,  than  a  court  absolutely  new.    But 
courts  incommodiously  situated  in  effect  deny  justice, 
and  a  court  partaking  in  the  fruits  of  its  own  condem 
nation  Is  a  robber.    The  Congress  complain,  and  com 
plain  justly,  of  this  grievance. 

117.  These  are  the  three  consequential  proposi- 
tiohs.    I  have  thought  of  two  or  three  more,  but  they 
come  rather  too  near  detail  and  to  the  province  of 
executive  government,  which  I  wish  Parliament  always 
to  superintend,  never  to  assume.    If  the  first  six  are 
granted,  congruity  will  carry  the  latter  three.    If  not, 
the  things  that  remain  unrepealed  will  be,  I  hope, 
rather  unseemly  encumbrances  on  the  building  than 
very  materially  detrimental  to  its  strength  and  sta 
bility. 

118.  Here,  Sir,  I  should  close  •  but  I  plainly  per 
ceive  some  objections  remain,  which  I  ought,  if  possi 
ble,  to  remove.    The  first  will  be  that,  in  resorting  to 
the  doctrine  of  our  ancestors  as  contained  in  the  pre 
amble  to  the  Chester  Act,  I  prove  too  much :  that  the 
grievance  from  a  want  of  representation,  stated  in  that 


112  BUBKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

preamble,  goes  to  the  whole  of  legislation  as  well  as  to 
taxation ;  and  that  the  colonies,  grounding  themselves 
upon  that  doctrine,  will  apply  it  to  all  parts  of  legis 
lative  authority. 

119.  To  this  objection,  with  all  possible  deference 
and  humility,  and  wishing  as  little  as  any  man  living 
to  impair  the  smallest  particle  of  our  supreme  author 
ity,  I  answer,  that  the  words  are  the  words  of  Parlia 
ment,  and  not  mine;  and  that  all  false  and  inconclusive 
inferences  drawn  from  them  are  not  mine,  for  I  heart 
ily  disclaim  any  such  inference.  I  have  chosen  the 
words  of  an  act  of  Parliament  which  Mr.  Grenville, 
surely  a  tolerably  zealous  and  very  judicious  advocate 
for  the  sovereignty  of  Parliament,  formerly  moved  to 
have  read  at  your  table  in  confirmation  of  his  tenets. 
It  is  true  that  Lord  Chatham  considered  these  pream 
bles  as  declaring  strongly  in  favor  of  his  opinions.  He 
was  a  no  less  powerful  advocate  for  the  privileges  of 
the  Americans.  Ought  I  not  from  hence  to  presume 
that  these  preambles  are  as  favorable  as  possible  to 
both,  when  properly  understood ;  favorable  both  to  the 
rights  of  Parliament,  and  to  the  privilege  of  the  de 
pendencies  of  this  crown?  But,  Sir,  the  object  of 
grievance  in  my  resolution  I  have  not  taken  from  the 
Chester,  but  from  the  Durham  Act,  which  confines  the 
hardship  of  want  of  representation  to  the  case  of  sub 
sidies,  and  which  therefore  falls  in  exactly  with  the 
case  of  the  colonies.  But  whether  the  unrepresented 
counties  were,  de  jure  or  de  facto,  bound  the  pream 
bles  do  not  accurately  distinguish,  nor  indeed  was  it 
necessary;  for  whether  de  jure  or  de  facto,  the  legis- 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  H3 

lature  thought  the  exercise  of  the  power  of  taxing  as 
of  right,  or  as  of  fact  without  right,  equally  a  griev 
ance  and  equally  oppressive. 

120.  I  do  not  know  that  the  colonies  have,  in  any 
general  way  or  in  any  cool  hour,  gone  much  beyond 
the  demand  of  immunity  in  relation  to  taxes.  It  is  not 
fair  to  judge  of  the  temper  or  dispositions  of  any  man, 
or  any  set  of  men,  when  they  are  composed  and  at 
rest,  from  their  conduct  or  their  expressions  in  a  state 
of  disturbance  and  irritation.  It  is  besides  a  very 
great  mistake  to  imagine  that  mankind  follow  up  prac 
tically  any  speculative  principle,  either  of  government 
or  of  freedom,  as  far  as  it  will  go  in  argument  and 
logical  illation.  We  Englishmen  stop  very  short  of 
the  principles  upon  which  we  support  any  given  part 
of  our  Constitution,  or  even  the  whole  of  it  together. 
I  could  easily,  if  I  had  not  already  tired  you,  give  you 
very  striking  and  convincing  instances  of  it.  This  is 
nothing  but  what  is  natural  and  proper.  All  govern 
ment — indeed  every  human  benefit  and  enjoyment, 
every  virtue,  and  every  prudent  act — is  founded  on 
compromise  and  barter.  We  balance  inconveniences; 
we  give  and  take ;  we  remit  some  rights  that  we  may 
enjoy  others;  and  we  choose  rather  to  be  happy  citi 
zens  than  subtle  disputants.  As  we  must  give  away 
some  natural  liberty  to  enjoy  civil  advantages,  so  we 
must  sacrifice  some  civil  liberties  for  the  advantages  to 
be  derived  from  the  communion  and  fellowship  of  a 
great  empire.  But  in  all  fair  dealings  the  thing  bought 
must  bear  some  proportion  to  the  purchase  paid.  None 
will  barter  away  the  immediate  jewel  of  his  soul. 


114  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

Though  a  great  house  is  apt  to  make  slaves  haughty, 
yet  it  is  purchasing  a  part  of  the  artificial  importance 
of  a  great  empire  too  dear  to  pay  for  it  all  essential 
rights  and  all  the  intrinsic  dignity  of  human  nature. 
None  of  us  who  would  not  risk  his  life  rather  than  fall 
under  a  government  purely  arbitrary.  But  although 
there  are  some  amongst  us  who  think  our  Constitution 
wants  many  improvements  to  make  it  a  complete  sys 
tem  of  liberty,  perhaps  none  who  are  of  that  opinion 
would  think  it  right  to  aim  at  such  improvement  by 
disturbing  his  country  and  risking  everything  that 
is  dear  to  him.  In  every  arduous  enterprise  we  con 
sider  what  we  are  to  lose  as  well  as  what  we  are  to 
gain ;  and  the  more  and  better  stake  of  liberty  every 
people  possess,  the  less  they  will  hazard  in  a  vain  at 
tempt  to  make  it  more.  These  are  the  cords  of  man. 
Man  acts  from  adequate  motives  relative  to  his  inter 
est,  and  not  on  metaphysical  speculations.  Aristotle, 
the  great  master  of  reasoning,  cautions  us,  and  with 
great  weight  and  propriety,  against  this  species  of  de 
lusive  geometrical  accuracy  in  moral  arguments,  as 
the  most  fallacious  of  all  sophistry. 

121.  The  Americans  will  have  no  interest  contrary 
to  the  grandeur  and  glory  of  England,  when  they  are 
not  oppressed  by  the  weight  of  it ;  and  they  will  rather 
be  inclined  to  respect  the  acts  of  a  superintending 
legislature  when  they  see  them  the  acts  of  that  power 
which  is  itself  the  security,  not  the  rival,  of  their  sec 
ondary  importance.  In  this  assurance  my  mind  most 
perfectly  acquiesces ;  and  I  confess  I  feel  not  the  least 
alarm  from  the  discontents  which  are  to  arise  from 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  OX  CONCILIATION  115 

putting^  people  at  their  ease ;  nor  do  I  apprehend  the 
destruction  of  this  empire  from  giving,  by  an  act  of 
free  grace  and  indulgence,  to  two  millions  of  my  fel 
low-citizens  some  share  of  those  rights  upon  which  I 
have  always  been  taught  to  value  myself. 

122.  It  is  said,  indeed,  that  this  power  of  grant 
ing,   vested  in  American  assemblies,  would  dissolve 
the  unity  of  the  empire ;  which  was  preserved  entire, 
although  Wales  and  Chester  and  Durham  were  added 
to  it.     Truly,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  do  not  know  what  this 
" unity"  means,  nor  has  it  ever  been  heard  of,  that 
I  know,  in  the  constitutional  policy  of  this  country. 
The  very  idea  of  subordination  of  parts  excludes  this 
notion  of  simple  and  undivided  unity.     England  is 
the  head ;  but  she  is  not  the  head  and  the  members  too. 
Ireland  has  ever  had  from  the  beginning  a  separate, 
but  not  an  independent,  legislature,  which,  far  from 
distracting,  promoted  the  union  of  the  whole.    Every 
thing  was  sweetly  and  harmoniously  disposed  through 
both  islands  for  the  conservation  of  English  dominion 
and  the  communication  of  English  liberties.    I  do  not 
see  that  the  same  principles  might  not  be  carried  into 
twenty  islands,  and  with  the  same  good  effect.    This 
is  my  model  with  regard  to  America,  as  far  as  the 
internal  circumstances  of  the  two  countries  are  the 
same.     I  know  no  other  unity  of  this  empire  than  I 
can  draw  from  its  example  during  these  periods  when 
it  seemed  to  my  poor  understanding  more  united  than 
it  is  now,  or  than  it  is  likely  to  be  by  the  present 
methods. 

123.  But  since  I  speak  of  these  methods,  I  recol- 


116  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

lect,  Mr.  Speaker,  almost  too  late,  that  I  promised, 
before  I  finished,  to  say  something  of  the  proposition 
of  the  noble  lord  on  the  floor,  which  has  been  so  lately 
received,  and  stands  on  your  journals.  I  must  be 
deeply  concerned,  whenever  it  is  my  misfortune  to  con 
tinue  a  difference  with  the  majority  of  this  House. 
But  as  the  reasons  for  that  difference  are  my  apology 
for  thus  troubling  you,  suffer  me  to  state  them  in  a 
very  few  words.  I  shall  compress  them  into  as  small 
a  body  as  I  possibly  can,  having  already  debated  that 
matter  at  large  when  the  question  was  before  the  com 
mittee. 

124.  First,  then,  I  cannot  admit  that  proposition 
of  a  ransom  by  auction,  because  it  is  a  mere  project. 
It  is  a  thing  new,  unheard  of,  supported  by  no  experi 
ence,  justified  by  no  analogy,  without  example  of  our 
ancestors  or  root  in  the  Constitution.     It  is  neither 
regular  parliamentary  taxation  nor  colony  grant.  Ex- 
perimentum  in  corpore  vili  is  a  good  rule,  which  will 
ever  make  me  adverse  to  any  trial  of  experiments  on 
what  is  certainly  the  most  valuable  of  all  subjects,  the 
peace  of  this  empire. 

125.  Secondly,  it  is  an  experiment  which  must  be 
fatal  in  the  end  to  our  Constitution.    For  what  is  it  but 
a  scheme  for  taxing  the  colonies  in  the  antechamber 
of  the  noble  lord  and  his  successors?     To  settle  the 
quotas  and  proportions  in  this  House  is  clearly  impos 
sible.     You,  Sir,  may  flatter  yourself  you  shall  sit  a 
state  auctioneer,  with  your  hammer  in  your  hand,  and 
knock  down  to  each  colony  as  it  bids.    But  to  settle — 
on  the  plan  laid  down  by  the  noble  lord — the  true 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  H7 

proportional  payment  for  four  or  five  and  twenty  gov 
ernments,  according  to  the  absolute  and  the  relative 
wealth  of  each,  and  according  to  the  British  propor 
tion  of  wealth  and  burthen,  is  a  wild  and  chimerical 
notion.  This  new  taxation  must  therefore  come  in  by 
the  back-door  of  the  Constitution.  Each  quota  must 
be  brought  to  this  House  ready  formed;  you  can 
neither  add  nor  alter.  You  must  register  it.  You  can 
do  nothing  further.  For  on  what  grounds  can  you 
deliberate  either  before  or  after  the  proposition  ?  You 
cannot  hear  the  counsel  for  all  these  provinces,  quar 
reling  each  on  its  own  quantity  of  payment  and  its 
proportion  to  others.  If  you  should  attempt  it,  the 
Committee  of  Provincial  Ways  and  Means,  or  by 
whatever  other  name  it  will  delight  to  be  called,  must 
swallow  up  all  the  time  of  Parliament. 

126.  Thirdly,  it  does  not  give  satisfaction  to  the 
complaint  of  the  colonies.  They  complain  that  they 
are  taxed  without  their  consent ;  you  answer  that  you 
will  fix  the  sum  at  which  they  shall  be  taxed — that  is, 
you  give  them  the  very  grievance  for  the  remedy.  You 
tell  them,  indeed,  that  you  will  leave  the  mode  to  them 
selves.  I  really  beg  pardon — it  gives  me  pain  to  men 
tion  it — but  you  must  be  sensible  that  you  will  not 
perform  this  part  of  the  compact.  For  suppose  the  col 
onies  were  to  lay  the  duties  which  furnished  their 
contingent  upon  the  importation  of  your  manufac 
turers;  you  know  you  would  never  suffer  such  a  tax 
to  be  laid.  You  know,  too,  that  you  would  not  suffer 
many  other  modes  of  taxation.  So  that,  when  you 
come  to  explain  yourself,  it  will  be  found  that  you 


118  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

will  neither  leave  to  themselves  the  quantum  nor  the 
mode — nor  indeed  anything.  The  whole  is  delusion 
from  one  end  to  the  other. 

127.  Fourthly,  this  method  of  ransom  by  auction, 
unless  it  be  universally  accepted,  will  plunge  you  into 
great  and  inextricable  difficulties.    In  what  year  of  our 
Lord  are  the  proportions  of  payments  to  be  settled? 
To  say  nothing  of  the  impossibility  that  colony  agents 
should  have  general  powers  of  taxing  the  colonies  at 
their  discretion,  consider,  I  implore  you,  that  the  com 
munication  by  special  messages,  and  orders  between 
these  agents  and  their  constituents  on  each  variation 
of  the  case,  when  the  parties  come  to  contend  together 
and  to  dispute  on  their  relative  proportions,  will  be 
a  matter  of  delay,  perplexity,  and  confusion  that  never 
can  have  an  end. 

128.  If  all  the  colonies  do  not  appear  at  the  out 
cry,  what  is  the  condition  of  those  assemblies  who  offer, 
by  themselves  or  their  agents,  to  tax  themselves  up  to 
your  ideas  of  their  proportion?     The  refractory  col 
onies,  who  refuse  all  composition,  will  remain  taxed 
only  to  your  old  impositions,  which,  however  grievous 
in  principle,  are  trifling  as  to  production.    The  obedi 
ent  colonies  in  this  scheme  are  heavily  taxed ;  the  re 
fractory  remain  unburthened.     What  will  you  do? 
Will  you  lay  new  and  heavier  taxes  by  Parliament  on 
the  disobedient?    Pray  consider  in  what  way  you  can 
do  it.    You  are  perfectly  convinced  that,  in  the  way 
of  taxing,  you  can  do  nothing  but  at  the  ports.    Now 
suppose  it  is  Virginia  that  refuses  to  appear  at  your 
auction,  while  Maryland  and  North  Carolina  bid  hand- 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  OX  CONCILIATION  H9 

somely  for  their  ransom,  and  are  taxed  to  your  quota — 
how  will  you  put  these  colonies  on  a  par  ?  Will  you 
tax  the  tobacco  of  Virginia  ?  If  you  do,  you  give  its 
death-wound  to  your  English  revenue  at  home,  and 
to  one  of  the  very  greatest  articles  of  your  own  for 
eign  trade.  If  you  tax  the  import  of  that  rebellious 
colony,  what  do  you  tax  but  your  own  manufactures, 
or  the  goods  of  some  other  obedient  and  already  well- 
taxed  colony?  Who  has  said  one  word  on  this  laby 
rinth  of  detail,  which  bewilders  you  more  and  more 
as  you  enter  into  it?  Who  has  presented,  who  can 
present  you,  with  a  clue  to  lead  you  out  of  it  ?  I  think, 
Sir,  it  is  impossible  that  you  should  not  recollect  that 
the  colony  bounds  are  so  implicated  in  one  another — 
you  know  it  by  your  other  experiments  in  the  bill  for 
prohibiting  the  New  England  fishery — that  you  can 
lay  no  possible  restraints  on  almost  any  of  them  which 
may  not  be  presently  eluded,  if  you  do  not  confound 
the  innocent  with  the  guilty,  and  burthen  those  whom, 
upon  every  principle,  you  ought  to  exonerate.  He 
must  be  grossly  ignorant  of  America  who  thinks  that, 
without  falling  into  this  confusion  of  all  rules  of 
equity  and  policy,  you  can  restrain  any  single  colony, 
especially  Virginia  and  Maryland,  the  central  and 
most  important  of  them  all. 

129.  Let  it  also  be  considered  that  either  in  the 
present  confusion  you  settle  a  permanent  contingent, 
which  will  and  must  be  trifling,  and  then  you  have  no 
effectual  revenue;  or  you  change  the  quota  at  every 
exigency,  and  then  on  every  new  repartition  you  will 
have  a  new  quarrel. 


120  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

130.  Reflect  besides  that  when  you  have  fixed  a 
quota  for  every  colony,  you  have  not  provided  for 
prompt  and  punctual  payment.     Suppose  one,  two, 
five,  ten  years'  arrears.    You  cannot  issue  a  treasury 
extent  against  the  failing  colony.     You  must  make 
new  Boston  Port  Bills,  new  restraining  laws,  new  acts 
for  dragging  men  to  England  for  trial.    You  must  send 
out  new  fleets,  new  armies.     All  is  to  begin  again. 
From  this  day  forward  the  empire  is  never  to  know 
an  hour's  tranquillity.    An  intestine  fire  will  be  kept 
alive  in  the  bowels  of  the  colonies,  which  one  time  or 
other  must  consume  this  whole  empire.    I  allow  indeed 
that  the  empire  of  Germany  raises  her  revenue  and 
her  troops  by  quotas  and  contingents;  but  the  revenue 
of  the  empire,  and  the  army  of  the  empire,  is  the  worst 
revenue  and  the  worst  army  in  the  world. 

131.  Instead  of  a  standing  revenue  you  will  there-' 
fore  have  a  perpetual  quarrel.    Indeed  the  noble  lord, 
who  proposed  this  project  of  a  ransom  by  auction, 
seemed  himself  to  be  of  that  opinion.    His  project  was 
rather  designed  for  breaking  the  union  of  the  colonies 
than  for  establishing  a  revenue.    He  confessed  he  ap 
prehended  that  his  proposal  would  not  be  to  their 
taste.    I  say,  this  scheme  of  disunion  seems  to  be  at 
the  bottom  of  the  project ;  for  I  will  not  suspect  that 
the  noble  lord  meant  nothing  but  merely  to  delude 
the  nation  by  an  airy  phantom  which  he  never  intended 
to  realize.    But  whatever  his  views  may  be,  as  I  pro 
pose  the  peace  and  union  of  the  colonies  as  the  very 
foundation  of  my  plan,  it  cannot  accord  with  one 
whose  foundation  is  perpetual  discord. 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  121 

132.  Compare  the  two.    This  I  offer  to  give  you  is 
plain  and  simple ;  the  other  full  of  perplexed  and  intri 
cate  mazes.    This  is  mild ;  that  harsh.    This  is  found 
by  experience  effectual  for  its  purposes ;  the  other  is  a 
new  project.    This  is  universal;  the  other  calculated 
for  certain  colonies  only.     This  is  immediate  in  its 
conciliatory  operation;  the  other  remote,  contingent, 
full  of  hazard.    Mine  is  what  becomes  the  dignity  of 
a  ruling  people — gratuitous,  unconditional,  and  not 
held  out  as  matter  of  bargain  and  sale.    I  have  done 
my  duty  in  proposing  it  to  you.    I  have  indeed  tired 
you  by  a  long  discourse ;  but  this  is  the  misfortune  of 
those  to  whose  influence  nothing  will  be  conceded,  and 
who  must  win  every  inch  of  their  ground  by  argument. 
You  have  heard  me  with  goodness.    May  you  decide 
with  wisdom !    For  my  part,  I  feel  my  mind  greatly 
disburthened  by  what  I  have  done  today.    I  have  been 
the  less  fearful  of  trying  your  patience  because  on  this 
subject  I  mean  to  spare  it  altogether  in  future.     I 
have  this  comfort,  that  in  every  stage  of  the  American 
affairs  I  have  steadily  opposed  the  measures  that  have 
produced  the  confusion,  and  may  bring  on  the  destruc 
tion,  of  this  empire.    I  now  go  so  far  as  to  risk  a  pro 
posal  of  my  own.    If  I  cannot  give  peace  to  my  coun 
try,  I  give  it  to  my  conscience. 

133.  "But  what,"  says  the  financier,  "is  peace  to 
us  without  money  ?    Your  plan  gives  us  no  revenue. ' ' 
No!     But  it  does;  for  it  secures  to  the  subject  the 
power  of  REFUSAL — the   first    of   all   revenues.     Ex 
perience  is  a  cheat,  and  fact  a  liar,  if  this  power  in  the 


122          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

subject  of  proportioning  his  grant,  or  of 'not  granting 
at  all,  has  not  been  found  the  richest  mine  of  revenue 
ever  discovered  by  the  skill  or  by  the  fortune  of  man. 
It  does  not  indeed  vote  you  £152,750 :11 :23/4ths,  nor 
any  other  paltry,  limited  sum ;  but  it  gives  the  strong 
box  itself,  the  fund,  the  bank,  from  whence  only  rev 
enues  can  arise  amongst  a  people  sensible  of  freedom : 
Posit  a  luditur  area.  Cannot  you  in  England,  cannot 
you  at  this  time  of  day,  cannot  you,  a  House  of  Com 
mons,  trust  to  the  principle  which  has  raised  so  mighty 
a  revenue,  and  accumulated  a  debt  of  near  140  millions 
in  this  country?  Is  this  principle  to  be  true  in  Eng 
land,  and  false  everywhere  else?  Is  it  not  true  in 
Ireland?  Has  it  not  hitherto  been  true  in  the  col 
onies  ?  Why  should  you  presume  that  in  any  country 
a  body  duly  constituted  for  any  function  will  neglect 
to  perform  its  duty,  and  abdicate  its  trust?  Such  a 
presumption  would  go  against  all  governments  in  all 
modes.  But,  in  truth,  this  dread  of  penury  of  supply 
from  a  free  assembly  has  no  foundation  in  nature. 
For  first  observe  that,  besides  the  desire  which  all 
men  have  naturally  of  supporting  the  honor  of  their 
own  government,  that  sense  of  dignity  and  that  secur 
ity  to  property,  which  ever  attends  freedom,  has  a 
tendency  to  increase  the  stock  of  the  free  community. 
Most  may  be  taken  where  most  is  accumulated.  And 
what  is  the  soil  or  climate  where  experience  has  not 
uniformly  proved  that  the  voluntary  flow  of  heaped- 
up  plenty,  bursting  from  the  weight  of  its  own  rich 
luxuriance,  has  ever  run  with  a  more  copious  stream 
of  revenue  than  could  be  squeezed  from  the  dry  husks 


BUKKE'S  SPEECH  OX  CONCILIATION  123 

of  oppressed  indigence,  by  the  straining  of  all  the 
politic  machinery  in  the  world  ? 

134.  Next,  we  know  that  parties  must  ever  exist 
in  a  free  country.    "We  know,  too,  that  the  emulations 
of  such  parties,  their  contradictions,  their  reciprocal 
necessities,  their  hopes,  and  their  fears,  must  send 
them  all  in  their  turns  to  him  that  holds  the  balance 
of  the  state.    The  parties  are  the  gamesters ;  but  gov 
ernment  keeps  the  table,  and  is  sure  to  be  the  winner 
in  the  end.    "When  this  game  is  played,  I  really  think 
it  is  more  to  be  feared  that  the  people  will  be  ex 
hausted  than  that  government  will  not  be  supplied. 
"Whereas  whatever  is  got  by  acts  of  absolute  power 
ill  obeyed  because  odious,  or  by  contracts  ill  kept 
because  constrained,  will  be  narrow,  feeble,  uncertain, 
and  precarious. 

Ease  would  retract 
Vows  made  in  pain,  as  violent  and  void. 

135.  I,  for  one,  protest  against  compounding  our 
demands:  I  declare  against  compounding,  for  a  poor 
limited  sum,  the  immense,  ever-growing,  eternal  debt, 
which  is  due  to  generous  government  from  protected 
freedom.    And  so  may  I  speed  in  the  great  object  I 
propose  to  you,  as  I  think  it  would  not  only  be  an  act 
of  injustice,  but  would  be  the  worst  economy  in  the 
world,  to  compel  the  colonies  to  a  sum  certain,  either 
in  the  way  of  ransom  or  in  the  way  of  compulsory 
compact. 

136.  But  to  clear  up  my  ideas  on  this  subject :  a 
revenue   from   America   transmitted  hither — do   not 
delude  yourselves — you  never  can  receive  it ;  no,  not  a 


124          BURKE  1S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

shilling.  We  have  experience  that  from  remote  coun 
tries  it  is  not  to  be  expected.  If,  when  you  attempted 
to  extract  revenue  from  Bengal,  you  were  obliged  to 
return  in  loan  what  you  had  taken  in  imposition,  what 
can  you  expect  from  North  America?  For  certainly, 
if  ever  there  was  a  country  qualified  to  produce  wealth, 
it  is  India;  or  an  institution  fit  for  the  transmission, 
it  is  the  East  India  Company.  America  has  none  of 
these  aptitudes.  If  America  gives  you  taxable  objects 
on  which  you  lay  your  duties  here,  and  gives  you  at 
the  same  time  a  surplus  by  a  foreign  sale  of  her  com 
modities  to  pay  the  duties  on  these  objects  which  you 
tax  at  home,  she  has  performed  her  part  to  the  British 
revenue.  But  with  regard  to  her  own  internal  estab 
lishments,  she  may — I  doubt  not  she  will — contribute 
in  moderation.  I  say  in  moderation ;  for  she  ought  not 
to  be  permitted  to  exhaust  herself.  She  ought  to  be 
reserved  to  a  war — the  weight  of  which,  with  the  ene 
mies  that  we  are  most  likely  to  have,  must  be  consider 
able  in  her  quarter  of  the  globe.  There  she  may  serve 
you,  and  serve  you  essentially. 

137.  For  that  service — for  all  service,  whether  of 
revenue,  trade,  or  empire — my  trust  is  in  her  interest 
in  the  British  Constitution.  My  hold  of  the  colonies 
is  in  the  close  affection  which  grows  from  common 
names,  from  kindred  blood,  from  similar  privileges, 
and  equal  protection.  These  are  ties  which,  though 
light  as  air,  are  as  strong  as  links  of  iron.  Let  the 
colonies  always  keep  the  idea  of  their  civil  rights  asso 
ciated  with  your  government— they  will  cling  and 
grapple  to  you,  and  no  force  under  heaven  will  be  of 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  125 

power  to  tear  them  from  their  allegiance.  But  let  it 
be  once  understood  that  your  government  may  be  one 
thing,  and  their  privileges  another;  that  these  two 
things  may  exist  without  any  mutual  relation — the 
cement  is  gone,  the  cohesion  is  loosened,  and  every 
thing  hastens  to  decay  and  dissolution.  As  long  as  you 
have  the  wisdom  to  keep  the  sovereign  authority  of  this 
country  as  the  sanctuary  of  liberty,  the  sacred  temple 
consecrated  to  our  common  faith,  wherever  the  chosen 
race  and  sons  of  England  worship  freedom,  they  will 
turn  their  faces  towards  you.  The  more  they  multiply, 
the  more  friends  you  will  have;  the  more  ardently 
they  love  liberty,  the  more  perfect  will  be  their  obedi 
ence.  Slavery  they  can  have  anywhere.  It  is  a  weed 
that  grows  in  every  soil.  They  may  have  it  from 
Spain ;  they  may  have  it  from  Prussia.  But,  until  you 
become  lost  to  all  feeling  of  your  true  interest  and 
your  natural  dignity,  freedom  they  can  have  from 
none  but  you.  This  is  the  commodity  of  price,  of 
which  you  have  the  monopoly.  This  is  the  true  Act 
of  Navigation,  which  binds  to  you  the  commerce  of 
the  colonies,  and  through  them  secures  to  you  the 
wealth  of  the  world.  Deny  them  this  participation 
of  freedom,  and  you  break  that  sole  bond  which  orig 
inally  made,  and  must  still  preserve,  the  unity  of  the 
empire.  Do  not  entertain  so  weak  an  imagination  as 
that  your  registers  and  your  bonds,  your  affidavits  and 
your  sufferances,  your  cockets  and  your  clearances,  are 
what  form  the  great  securities  of  your  commerce.  Do 
not  dream  that  your  letters  of  office  and  your  instruc 
tions  and  your  suspending  clauses  are  the  things  that 


126          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

hold  together  the  great  contexture  of  the  mysterious 
whole.  These  things  do  not  make  your  government. 
Dead  instruments,  passive  tools  as  they  are,  it  is  the 
spirit  of  English  communion  that  gives  all  their  life 
and  efficacy  to  them.  It  is  the  spirit  of  the  English 
Constitution,  which,  infused  through  the  mighty 
mass,  pervades,  feeds,  unites,  invigorates,  vivifies  every 
part  of  the  empire,  even  down  to  the  minutest  member. 

138.  Is  it  not  the  same  virtue  which  does  every 
thing  for  us  here  in  England  ?    Do  you  imagine  then, 
that  it  is  the  Land  Tax  Act  which  raises  your  revenue  ? 
that  it  is  the  annual  vote  in  the  Committee  of  Supply 
which  gives  you  your  army  ?  or  that  it  is  the  Mutiny 
Bill  which  inspires  it  with  bravery  and  discipline? 
No !  surely  no !    It  is  the  love  of  the  people,  it  is  their 
attachment  to  their  government  from  the  sense  of  the 
deep  stake  they  have  in  such  a  glorious  institution, 
which  gives  you  your  army  and  your  navy,  and  infuses 
into  both  that  liberal  obedience  without  which  your 
army  would  be  a  base  rabble  and  your  navy  nothing 
but  rotten  timber. 

139.  All  this,  I  know  well  enough,  will  sound  wild 
and  chimerical  to  the  profane  herd  of  those  vulgar 
and  mechanical  politicians  who  have  no  place  among 
us — a  sort  of  people  who  think  that  nothing  exists  but 
what  is  gross  and  material,  and  who  therefore,  far  from 
being  qualified  to  be  directors  of  the  great  movement 
of  empire,  are  not  fit  to  turn  a  wheel  in  the  machine. 
But  to  men  truly  initiated  and  rightly  taught,  these 
ruling  and  master  principles,  which  in  the  opinion 
of  such  men  as  I  have  mentioned  have  no  substantial 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  OX  CONCILIATION  127 

existence,  are  in  truth  everything,  and  all  in  all.  Mag 
nanimity  in  politics  is  not  seldom  the  truest  wisdom ; 
and  a  great  empire  and  little  minds  go  ill  together. 
If  we  are  conscious  of  our  situation,  and  glow  with 
zeal  to  fill  our  place  as  becomes  our  station  and  our 
selves,  we  ought  to  auspicate  all  our  public  proceed 
ings  on  America  with  the  old  warning  of  the  church, 
Surswn  cor  da!  We  ought  to  elevate  our  minds  to  the 
greatness  of  that  trust  to  which  the  order  of  providence 
has  called  us.  By  adverting  to  the  dignity  of  this  high 
calling  our  ancestors  have  turned  a  savage  wilderness 
into  a  glorious  empire,  and  have  made  the  most  exten 
sive,  and  the  only  honorable  conquests,  not  by  destroy 
ing,  but  by  promoting,  the  wealth,  the  number,  the 
happiness  of  the  human  race.  Let  us  get  an  American 
revenue  as  we  have  got  an  American  empire.  English 
privileges  have  made  it  all  that  it  is;  English  privi 
leges  alone  will  make  it  all  it  can  be. 

140.  In  full  confidence  of  this  unalterable  truth,  I 
now — quod  felix  faustumque  sit! — lay  the  first  stone 
of  the  Temple  of  Peace ;  and  I  move  you 

That  the  colonies  and  plantations  of  Great  Britain 
in  North  America,  consisting  of  fourteen  separate 
governments,  and  containing  two  millions  and  upwards 
of  free  inhabitants,  have  not  had  the  liberty  and  privi 
lege  of  electing  and  sending  any  knights  and  burgesses, 
or  others,  to  represent  them  in  the  high  court  of  Par 
liament. 


IMPORTANT  COLLATERAL  READINGS 

FROM  THE  SPEECHES  OF  EDMUND  BURKE,  WILLIAM  PITT, 

AND  CHARLES  JAMES  FOX;  FROM  THE  HISTORIANS 

TREVELYAN   AND   LECKY;    AND   FROM   THE 

PARLIAMENTARY  HISTORY,    1775-1776 


HOW  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION  WAS 
REGARDED  IN  ENGLAND 


It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  many  Englishmen 
from  the  first — and  in  the  end  a  decided,  and  indeed  a 
very  large,  majority  among  them — regarded  the  con 
test  which  was  being  fought  out  in  America  not  as  a 
foreign  war,  but  as  a  civil  war  in  which  English  liberty 
was  at  stake.  They  held  that  a  policy  had  been  delib 
erately  initiated,  and  during  half  a  generation  had 
been  resolutely  pursued,  of  which  the  avowed  object 
was  to  make  the  Royal  power  dominant  in  the  State ; 
and  the  historians  in  highest  repute,  who  since  have 
treated  of  those  times,  unreservedly  maintain  the  same 
view.  That  policy  had  now1  prevailed ;  and  Personal 
Government,  from  a  mischievous  theory,  had  grown  in 
to  a  portentous  reality.  The  victory  of  the  Crown  had 
been  preceded  by  an  epoch  of  continuous  and  bitter 
strife,  every  stage  in  which  was  marked  by  deplorable 
incidents.  The  publication  through  the  press  of  opin 
ions  obnoxious  to  the  Court  had  been  punished  with 
unsparing  severity.  The  right  of  constituents  to  elect 
a  person  of  their  choice  had  been  denied  in  words,  and 
repeatedly  violated  in  practice.  The  benches  of  the 
Lords  and  the  Commons  swarmed  with  an  ever  increas 
ing  band  of  placemen  and  pensioners  subsidized  by 

*In  the  spring  of  1777. 

129 


130          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

the  King;  and  these  gentlemen  well  knew  the  work 
which  the  paymaster  expected  of  them.  Their  vocation 
was  to  harass  any  minister  who  conceived  that  he  owed 
a  duty  to  the  people  as  well  as  to  the  Sovereign ;  and 
to  betray  and  ruin  him  if  he  proved  incorrigible  in 
his  notions  of  patriotism.  The  most  famous  English 
statesmen — all,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  who  are  now 
remembered  with  pride  by  Englishmen  of  every  party 
— were  shut  out  from  the  opportunity,  and  even  from 
the  hope,  of  office ;  and  our  national  qualities  of  man 
liness  and  independence  had  come  to  be  a  standing 
disqualification  for  employment  in  the  nation's  serv 
ice.  At  last  the  Cabinet  had  picked  a  quarrel  with 
the  colonies  over  the  very  same  question  which  con 
vulsed  England  in  the  days  of  Strafford  and  the  ship- 
money.  In  order  to  vindicate  the  doctrine  that  taxa 
tion  might  be  imposed  without  representation,  the 
servants  of  the  Crown,  or  rather  its  bondsmen  (for 
the  Prime  Minister,  and  the  most  respectable  of  his 
colleagues,  were  in  this  matter  acting  under  compul 
sion,  and  against  their  consciences),  had  undertaken 
to  coerce  the  communities  in  America  with  fire  and 
sword,  and  to  visit  individuals  with  the  extreme  pen 
alties  of  rebellion.  It  followed,  as  a  natural  and  certain 
consequence,  that  the  party,  which  resented  the  en 
croachments  of  the  Crown  at  home,  sincerely  and  uni 
versally  entertained  a  belief  which  influenced  their 
whole  view  of  the  colonial  controversy.  That  belief 
had  been  placed  on  record,  in  quiet  but  expressive 
language,  by  a  nobleman  who,  in  his  honored  age,  lived 
among  us  as  the  last  of  the  old  Whigs.  Lord  Albe- 


TKEVELYAN'S  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION         131 

marie  distinctly  states  that  in  1774,  and  for  some  years 
afterwards,  the  Opposition  were  possessed  by  '  *  a  deep 
and  well-grounded  conviction  that,  if  despotism  were 
once  established  in  America,  arbitrary  government 
would  at  least  be  attempted  in  the  mother  country." 
Those  apprehensions  were  shared  by  men  whose 
judgment  cannot  lightly  be  set  aside,  and  the  strength. 
of  whose  patriotism  was  many  degrees  above  proof. 
Chatham,  when  he  spoke  in  public,  dwelt  mainly  upon 
the  rights  of  the  colonists,  the  duty  of  England,  and 
the  appalling  military  dangers  which  would  result  to 
the  Empire  if  those  rights  were  invaded  and  that  duty 
ignored.  With  the  instinct  of  a  great  orator,  he  did 
not  willingly  introduce  fresh  debatable  matter  into 
a  controversy  where  he  had  so  many  sufficient  and 
self-evident  arguments  ready  to  his  hand;  but  his 
private  correspondence  clearly  indicates  that  the  keen 
ness  of  his  emotion,  and  the  warmth  of  his  advocacy, 
were  closely  connected  with  a  profound  belief  that,  if 
America  were  subjugated,  Britain  would  not  long  be 
free.  Would  to  heaven,  he  wrote,  that  England  was 
not  doomed  to  bind  round  her  own  hands,  and  wear 
patiently,  the  chains  which  she  was  forging  for  her 
colonies !  And  then  he  quoted,  with  telling  effect,  the 
passage  in  which  Juvenal  described  how  the  spread  of 
servility  among  the  Roman  people,  and  the  corruption 
of  their  public  spirit,  avenged  the  wrongs  of  the  sub 
ject  world  upon  the  conquerors  themselves. 
******* 

Horace  "Walpole,  with  whom  the  chief  men  of  both 
parties  freely  conversed,  had  no  doubt  whither  the 


132          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

road  led  which  the  stronger,  and  the  worse,  members 
of  the  Cabinet  joyfully  followed ;  and  down  which  the 
less  perverse,  and  the  more  timid,  were  irresistibly 
driven.  He  never  was  easy  about  the  political  future 
of  his  country,  until  North's  Government  fell,  and 
the  danger  disappeared.  During  the  winter  when 
Howe  and  Washington  were  contending  in  the  Jerseys, 
Walpole  complained  that  his  life  at  present  consisted 
in  being  wished  joy  over  the  defeat  and  slaughter 
of  fellow  countrymen,  who  were  fighting  for  his  lib 
erty  as  well  as  for  their  own.  Thirty  months  after 
wards  he  spoke  still  more  gloomily.  It  was  bad  enough, 
he  said,  to  be  at  war  with  France  and  Spain  because 
we  would  not  be  content  to  let  America  send  us  half 
the  wealth  of  the  world  in  her  own  way,  instead  of  in 
the  way  that  pleased  George  Grenville  and  Charles 
Townshend.  But  the  subversion  of  a  happy  Constitu 
tion,  by  the  hands  of  domestic  enemies,  was  a  worse 
fate  than  any  which  we  could  suffer  from  the  for 
eigner;  and  that  fate,  unless  the  nation  recovered  its 

senses,  only  too  surely  awaited  us. 

******* 

When  once  the  American  war  broke  out,  it  became 
evident  to  them1  that  there  were  no  lengths  to  which 
the  King  was  not  prepared  to  go :  and  there  were  most 
certainly  none  to  which  they  themselves  would  not 
eagerly  follow.  Testimony  to  that  effect  was  given  by 
a  witness  who  knew,  as  well  as  anybody,  what  the 
Jacobites  were  thinking.  In  one  of  the  last  letters 
which  he  wrote,  David  Hume,  with  the  solemnity  of  a 

'The  Jacobite  Tories. 


TREVELYAN'S    AMERICAN    REVOLUTION      133 

dying  man,  prophesied  that,  if  the  Court  carried  the 
day  in  America,  the  English  Constitution  would  infal 
libly  perish. 

#     *     #     #     #     *     * 

"It  appears,"  Frederick  the  Great  wrote  in  August, 
1775,  *  *  from  all  I  hear,  that  the  ancient  British  spirit 
has  almost  entirely  eclipsed  itself,  and  that  everything 
tends  to  a  change  in  the  form  of  government,  so  that 
the  old  constitution  will  exist  only  on  the  surface,  and 
the  nation  in  effect  will  be  nearer  slavery  than  in  any 
preceding  reign." 

The  Abbe  Morellet  wrote  to  Lord  Shelburne  in  1782 : 
"Yes,  my  Lord,  in  spite  of  the  war  that  divides  us,  I  am 
glad  to  see  your  country  better  administered.  I  rejoice, 
in  my  quality  of  citizen  of  the  world,  that  a  great 
people  should  resume  their  true  place ;  should  regain 
a  clear  view  of  their  real  interests ;  and  should  employ 
their  resources,  not  in  the  pursuit  of  an  end  which  can 
not  be  attained,  but  for  the  conservation  of  that  wealth 
and  influence  which  are  naturally  their  due,  and  which, 
for  the  sake  of  the  world  at  large,  it  is  all-important 
that  they  should  continue  to  possess.  If  the  indepen 
dence  of  America  had  perished,  your  constitution 
would  have  been  overthrown,  and  your  freedom  lost." 

The  Duke  of  Richmond  wrote  to  Burke  from  Paris  in 
1776 :  "Who  knows  that  a  time  may  not  come  when  a 
retreat  to  this  country  may  not  be  a  happy  thing  to 
have  ?  We  now  hold  our  liberties  merely  by  the  mag 
nanimity  of  the  best  of  kings,  who  will  not  make  use  of 
the  opportunity  he  has  to  seize  them ;  for  he  has  it  in 


134          BUEKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

his  power,  with  the  greatest  ease  and  qiiiet,  to  imitate 
the  King  of  Sweden.  I  have  not  the  least  doubt  but  that 
his  faithful  peers  and  commons  would  by  degrees — 
or  at  once  if  he  liked  it  better — vote  him  complete  des 
potism.  I  fear  I  see  the  time  approaching  when  the 
English,  after  having  been  guilty  of  every  kind  of 
meanness  and  corruption,  will  at  last  own  themselves, 
like  the  Swedes,  unworthy  to  be  free.  When  that  day 
comes,  our  situation  will  be  worse  than  France.  Young 
despotism,  like  a  boy  broke  loose  from  school,  will 
indulge  itself  in  every  excess.  Besides,  if  there  is  a 
contest,  though  it  be  a  feeble  one,  I,  or  mine,'  may  be 
among  the  proscribed.  If  such  an  event  should  happen, 
and  America  not  be  open  to  receive  us,  France  is  some 
retreat,  and  a  peerage  here  is  something." 
»***»** 

Among  London  newspapers  the  largest,  the  most 
attractive,  and  quite  incomparably  the  most  in  request, 
were  opposed  to  the  American  policy  of  the  Cabinet. 
.  .  .  The  London  "Evening  Post,"  the  "Public 
Advertiser,"  the  "Morning  Chronicle  and  London 
Advertiser, ' '  and  the  ' '  Gazetteer  and  New  Daily  Ad 
vertiser,"  gave  the  Court  and  the  Bedfords  superabun 
dant  cause  to  regret  that  they  had  not  left  Wilkes 
and  his  newspaper  alone. 

******* 

In  estimating  the  balance  of  British  opinion  during 
the  American  Revolution  great  importance  must  be 
attached  to  the  views  expressed  by  the  newspapers; 
but  not  less  significant  was  the  impunity  with  which 
those  views  were  given  to  the  world.  It  has  happened 


TREVELYAN'S  AMEKICAN  REVOLUTION         135 

more  than  once  that  an  Administration,  already  on 
the  decline,  has  become  powerful  and  popular  when 
a  war  broke  out,  and  has  retained  its  advantage  so 
long  as  that  war  endured ;  and,  under  the  Georges,  an 
accession  of  strength,  and  of  public  favor,  meant  a 
great  deal  more  to  a  Government  than  it  means  now. 
A  war  ministry  then,  which  had  the  country  with  it, 
was  terribly  formidable  to  political  opponents  at  home. 
It  might  have  seemed  likely  that,  after  the  colonists 
had  recourse  to  arms,  journalists  and  pamphleteers 
who  went  counter  to  the  royal  policy  would  soon  have 
had  a  very  bad  time  in  England ;  but  exactly  the  oppo 
site  result  ensued.  During  the  first  fourteen  years  of 
George  the  Third,  the  ministerial  censorship  of  the 
Press  had  been  continuous,  inquisitorial,  and  harsh 
almost  to  barbarity.  The  most  exalted  magistrates  had 
placed  themselves  at  the  service  of  the  executive  with 
culpable  facility ;  not  for  the  first  time  in  our  history. 
Roger  North,  in  his  picturesque  and  instructive  family 
biographies,  reports  how,  throughout  the  civil  dissen 
sions  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  time  of  the  King's 
Bench  was  taken  up  with  factious  contentions;  and 
he  speaks  of  that  Court  as  a* place  where  more  news 
than  law  was  stirring.  The  law,  as  there  laid  down  by 
Lord  Mansfield  in  1763,  was  fraught  with  grave  con 
sequences  to  all  men  who  gained  their  livelihood  by 
writing  copy,  or  by  setting  up  type.  Informations 
began  to  rain  like  hail  upon  authors,  editors,  pub 
lishers,  and  printers.  Crushing  fines,  protracted  terms 
of  imprisonment,  and  the  open  shame  of  the  pillory 
were,  for  several  years  to  come,  the  portion  of  those 


136          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

who  criticized  the  Cabinet  in  earnest.  Their  plight 
would  have  been  hopeless  if  they  had  not  sometimes 
found  a  refuge  in  the  Common  Pleas,  where  the  presi 
dent  of  the  tribunal  was  Lord  Chief  Justice  Pratt; 
who  subsequently  in  the  House  of  Peers,  as  Lord  Cam- 
den,  ably  supported  Lord  Chatham's  endeavors  to 
reconcile  Great  Britain  and  America.  Pratt,  acting  in 
the  true  spirit  of  the  law  wherever  liberty  was  at 
hazard,  and  audaciously  advancing  the  limits  of  his 
own  jurisdiction  when  he  otherwise  could  not  rescue  a 
victim,  nobly  vindicated  the  ancient  reputation  of  his 
Court.  As  time  went  on,  the  ministerial  majority 
in  the  House  of  Commons  joined  in  the  hunt ;  and  Par 
liamentary  Privilege,  which  had  been  devised  for  the 
protection  of  freedom,  was  perverted,  amid  scenes  of 
scandalous  uproar  and  irregularity,  into  an  engine  of 

tyranny. 

******* 

Ministers  who  had  pursued  such  courses  in  a  time 
of  peace — when  they  could  not  excuse  their  arbitrary 
measures  by  the  plea  of  national  danger,  or  the  neces 
sity  for  preserving  an  appearance  of  national  unanim 
ity  might  have  been  expected,  when  a  war  was  raging, 
to  have  strained  and  overridden  legality  more  unscru 
pulously  than  ever  for  the  purpose  of  paying  out  old 
scores,  and  repressing  fresh  ebullitions  of  hostile  criti 
cism.  But,  though  the  clamor  against  the  King  and 
his  ministers  waxed  ever  more  shrill  and  more  perti 
nacious,  the  censorship  seemed  to  have  lost  its  nerve, 
and  the  Opposition  press  went  forward  on  its  boister 
ous  way  unmenaced  and  almost  unmolested.  Political 


TREVELYAN'S    AMERICAN    REVOLUTION      137 

trials  became  infrequent,  and,  after  a  while,  ceased. 
The  voice  of  the  Attorney-General  calling  for  ven 
geance — now  upon  grave  constitutional  essayists,  or 
vehement  champions  of  freedom ;  now  upon  some  mis 
erable  bookseller's  hack,  and  the  compositors  who  had 
deciphered  and  printed  his  lucubrations — was  hushed 
and  silent.  Men  wrote  what  they  thought  and  felt,  in 
such  terms  as  their  indignation  prompted  and  their 
taste  permitted.  However  crude  and  violent  might  be 
the  language  in  which  the  newspapers  couched  their 
invectives,  the  legal  advisers  of  the  Government,  when 
it  came  to  a  question  of  prosecution,  were  awed  and 
scared  by  the  consciousness  that  there  existed  immense 
multitudes  of  people  for  whom  diatribes  against  the 
Court  and  the  Cabinet  could  not  be  too  highly  flavored. 
#  #  *  #  #  *  % 

From  1775  onward  the  newspapers  went  straight 
for-  the  King.  The  Empire,  they  declared,  was  under 
the  direction  of  a  bigoted  and  vindictive  prince,  whose 
administration  was  odious  and  corrupt  in  every  part ; 
so  that  the  struggles  of  a  handful  of  his  subjects,  made 
furious  by  oppression,  had  proclaimed  the  weakness 
of  that  Empire  to  the  world.  Those  precise  words  were 
printed  at  the  beginning  of  1776 ;  and  towards  the  end 
of  the  year  a  Christian  Soldier  addressed  George  the 
Third  in  a  sermon  of  a  couple  of  columns,  headed  by 
the  first  seven  verses  of  the  Sixth  Chapter  in  the  Wis 
dom  of  Solomon.  The  denunciation  against  wicked 
rulers,  which  those  verses  contain,  was  a  sufficient 
sermon  in  itself ;  but  the  preacher  did  not  shrink  from 
the  duty  of  pressing  his  text  home.  * '  Have  you  not, ' ' 


138          BUBKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

he  asked  the  King,  "  called  your  own  pretensions  the 
necessity  of  the  State  ?  Have  you  chosen  for  your  Min 
isters  and  Counsellors  men  of  the  greatest  piety  and 
courage  and  understanding?  Have  you  not  dreaded 
to  have  such  around  you,  because  they  would  not  flatter 
you,  and  would  oppose  your  unjust  passions  and  your 
misbecoming  designs?"  And  so  the  argument  con 
tinued  through  a  score  of  interrogatives,  any  one  of 
which,  five  years  before,  or  ten  years  before,  would 
have  sent  the  author,  and  his  printer,  and  the  print 
er's  devils  as  well,  to  think  out  the  answer  to  that 
string  of  irreverent  queries  in  the  solitude  of  Newgate. 
Whenever  the  Ministry  was  mentioned  in  connection 
with  the  King,  it  was  not  for  the  purpose  of  shielding 
him  from  responsibility,  but  in  order  to  upbraid  him 
for  having  entrusted  the  government  of  the  country  to 
such  a  pack  of  reprobates.  There  could  not,  according 
to  one  journalist,  be  anything  more  unfortunate  for 
a  nation  than  for  its  Prince  not  to  have  one  honest 
man  about  him.  "Americans,"  wrote  another,  "are 
totally  indifferent  about  every  change  of  Ministers 
which  may  happen  in  the  Court  system.  They  care  not 
who  comes  in.  They  know  that  a  change  of  men  im 
plies  nothing  more  than  knaves  succeeding  to  that 
power  which  former  knaves  were  fools  enough  to 

abuse." 

******* 

A  certain  sense  of  comradeship  between  the  two 
great  branches  of  our  people,  which  the  war  had  not 
extinguished,  was  manifested  in  the  feelings  enter 
tained  by  many  Englishmen  in  England  towards  the 


TREVELYAN'S    AMERICAN    REVOLUTION      139 

Revolutionary  leaders  who  had  displayed  energy  and 
courage,  and  particularly  towards  such  as  had  fallen 
in  battle.  After  the  repulse  of  the  Americans  before 
Quebec,  Montgomery's  body,  by  General  Carleton's 
order,  was  borne  into  the  town  with  every  mark  of 
reverence  and  regret,  and  buried  with  military  hon 
ors.  When  the  tidings  of  his  death  reached  the  House 
of  Commons,  the  most  powerful  orators,  not  on  one  side 
only,  praised  his  virtues,  and  lamented  his  fate. 
Burke  spoke  of  him  with  admiration.  Lord  North 
acknowledged  that  he  was  brave,  able,  and  humane, 
and  deplored  that  those  generous  epithets  must  be 
applied  to  one  who  had  been  a  rebel ;  to  which  Charles 
Fox  retorted  that  Montgomery  was  a  rebel  only  in  the 
same  sense  as  were  the  old  Parliament  men  of  a  hun 
dred  years  ago,  to  whom  those  he  saw  around  him 
owed  it  that  they  had  a  House  of  Commons  in  which 

to  sit. 

******* 

The  sentiments  which  were  current  in  one  famous 
region  of  industry  and  enterprise  have  been  recorded 
by  a  witness  whose  evidence  on  this  point  is  above 
suspicion.  Samuel  Curwen,  a  prominent  Massachu 
setts  Loyalist — who  had  been  a  high  official  in  his 
native  province,  and  now  was  an  exile  in  England — 
made  a  tour  in  the  Midland  counties,  and  spent  a  week 
at  Birmingham.  Walking  there  on  the  Lichfield  road, 
Curwen  was  invited  indoors  by  a  Quaker,  and  found 
him  "a  warm  American,  as  most  of  the  middle  classes 
are  through  the  Kingdom."  He  passed  an  agreeable 
day  with  a  merchant,  who  had  been  in  America,  and 


140  BURKE  7S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

who  was  "her  steady  and  ardent  advocate."  He 
stepped  into  the  shop  of  a  gunmaker.  The  British 
Ministry — with  foresight  which,  for  the  War  Office, 
might  almost  be  called  inspiration — had  given  the  man 
an  order  to  construct  six  hundred  rifles  for  the  use  of 
General  Howe's  army;  and  yet,  said  Curwen,  "he 
is  an  anti-ministerialist,  as  is  the  whole  town. ' '  If  such 
was  the  case  in  a  district  where  Government  orders 
for  military  supplies  had  been  freely  placed,  it  may 
well  be  believed  that  political  discontent  and  disgust 
were  not  less  acute  in  those  commercial  centers  which 
greatly  suffered,  and  in  no  way  profited,  by  the  exist 
ence  of  hostilities. 

*       *       *       *       **      * 

The  Revolution  was  marked  by  a  feature  unique  in 
English  history.  Not  a  few  officers  of  every  grade,  who 
were  for  the  most  part  distinguished  by  valor  and 
ability,  flatly  refused  to  serve  against  the  colonists; 
and  their  scruples  were  respected  by  their  countrymen 
in  general,  and  by  the  King  and  his  ministers  as  well. 
An  example  was  set  in  the  highest  quarters.  The 
sailor  and  the  soldier  who  stood  first  in  the  public 
esteem  were  Augustus  Keppel,  Vice  Admiral  of  the 
White,  and  Lieutenant  General  Sir  Jeffrey  Amherst. 
Keppel  made  it  known  that  he  was  ready  as  ever 
to  serve  against  a  European  enemy,  but  that,  although 
professional  employment  was  the  dearest  object  in  his 
life,  he  would  not  accept  it  "in  the  line  of  America. " 
After  that  announcement  was  made,  and  to  some  de 
gree  on  account  of  it,  he  enjoyed  a  great  and  indeed 
an  extravagant,  popularity  among  all  ranks  of  the 


TREVELYAN'S    AMERICAN    REVOLUTION      141 

Navy;  and  when  a  European  war  broke  out,  he  was 
promoted,  and  placed  in  command  of  the  Channel 
Fleet.  Amherst  had  absolutely  declined  to  sail  for 
New  England  in  order  to  lead  troops  in  the  field.  He 
withstood  the  expostulations  and  entreaties  of  his  Sov 
ereign,  who  in  a  personal  interview,  as  Dr.  Johnson 
truly  testified,  was  as  fine  a  gentleman  as  the  world 
could  see;  and  who  never  was  more  persuasive  and 
impressive  than  when  condescending  to  request  one 
of  his  subjects  to  undertake  a  public  duty  as  a  private 
favor  to  himself.  The  circumstance  was  not  remem 
bered  to  Amherst 's  disadvantage.  He  was  retained  as 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  forces ;  within  the  ensuing 
five  years  he  became  a  peer,  the  Colonel  of  a  regiment 
of  Household  Cavalry,  and  a  full  General  in  the 
army ;  and  he  died  a  Field-Marshal. 
******* 

Some  military  and  naval  men  left  the  service  out 
right,  and  re-entered  private  life,  with  no  diminution 
to  such  popularity,  or  social  predominance,  as  they  had 
hitherto  enjoyed.  Some  remained  on  half-pay  until 
Great  Britain  was  attacked  by  European  enemies, 
when  they  promptly  and  joyfully  placed  their  swords 
once  more  at  the  disposal  of  the  Government.  Others, 
again,  accepted  a  commission  in  the  militia;  a  post 
of  unusual  danger  and  importance  at  a  moment  when 
England,  stripped  bare  of  regular  troops,  had  tem 
porarily  lost  command  of  the  sea  in  consequence  of 
the  scandalous  improvidence  of  the  Board  at  the  head 
of  which  Lord  Sandwich  sat.  Whatever  course  they 
adopted,  their  fidelity  to  principle  appeared  reason- 


142          BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

able,  and  even  laudable,  to  their  countrymen  of  the 
middle  and  lower  classes;  and  in  their  intercourse 
with  equals  they  brought  down  upon  themselves  and 
their  families  no  penalties  whatsoever.  The  American 
war,  from  the  outset  to  the  finish,  was  an  open  question 
in  English  society.  A  general  or  colonel,  who  had  re 
fused  to  take  a  command  against  the  colonists,  lived 
comfortably  and  pleasantly  with  his  country  neigh 
bors.  The  strong  Tory  politicians  among  them  might 
grumble  against  him  as  fanciful  or  factious;  but 
much  harder  things  would  have  been  said  about  him 
if  he  had  shot  foxes,  or  given  a  piece  of  ground  for 
the  site  of  a  Nonconformist  chapel. 


1.  Conway  said  that  a  military  man,  before  he  drew 
his  sword  against  his  fellow-subjects,  ought  to  ask 
himself  whether  the  cause  were  just  or  no.    Unless  his 
mind  was  satisfied  on  that  point,  all  emoluments — nay, 
the  sacrifice  of  what  people  in  his  situation  held  dear 
est,  their  honor — would  be  nothing  in  the  scale  with 
his  conscience.     He,  for  his  part,  never  could  draw 
his  sword  in  that  cause. 

2.  Lady  Chatham  wrote:  " Feeling  all  this,  Sir,  as 
Lord  Chatham  does,  you  will  tell  yourself  with  what 
concern  he  communicates  to  you  a  step  that,  from  his 
fixed  opinion  with  regard  to  the  continuance  of  the 
unhappy  war  with  our  fellow-subjects  of  America,  he 
has  found  it  necessary  to  take.    It  is  that  of  withdraw- 
ing  his  son  from  such  a  service. " 


TREVELYAN'S    AMERICAN    REVOLUTION      143 

3.  Lord  Effingham's  highest  ambition  was  to  serve 
his    country    in    a    military    capacity.     "When    the 
duties,"  he  said,  "of  a  soldier  and  a  citizen  become 
inconsistent,  I  shall  always  think  myself  obliged  to 
sink  the  character  of  the  soldier  in  that  of  the  citizen, 
till  such  time  as  those  duties  shall  again,  by  the  malice 
of  our  real  enemies,  become  united."    Effingham  sat 
down  as  soon  as  he  had  made  this  remarkable  confes 
sion  ;  but  none  of  his  brother  peers,  who  were  present, 
took  exception  to  his  speech;  nor  was  he  ever  subse 
quently  taunted  with  it  in  debate,  although  he  was  a 
frequent,  a  fiery,  and  a  most  provocative  assailant  of 
the   Government.     Outside   Parliament,   not   in  any 
way  by  his  own  seeking,  he  at  once  became  celebrated, 
and  vastly  popular. 

4.  Lord  Frederic  Cavendish  allowed  it  to  be  known 
that  he  would  not  apply  for  a  command  against  the 
colonists.     Lord  Frederic,  however,  continued  in  his 
profession;  and  in  subsequent  years  he  was  made  a 
full  General  by  the  Whigs,  and  a  Field-Marshal  by 
the  Tories. 

5.  Granville  Sharp,  a  clerk  in  the  Ordnance  Depart 
ment,,  wrote  in  his  diary,  July  24,  1775 :  "Account  in 
Gazette  of  the  Battle  at  Charlestown,  near  Boston,  and 
letters  with  large  demands  for  ordnance  stores,  being 
received,  which  were  ordered  to  be  got  with  all  expedi 
tion,  I  thought  it  right  to  declare  my  objections  to  the 
being  any  way  concerned  in  that  unnatural  business." 

6.  In  February,  1776,  Lord  Howe  was  appointed 
to   the  American  station;  and  he  forthwith  invited 
Cartwright  to  call  at  his  house  in  Grafton  Street,  and 


144  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

earnestly  pressed  him  to  embark  on  board  the  flag 
ship.  Cartwright,  too  deeply  moved  to  argue  with  a 
patron  whom  he  almost  worshipped,  intimated  that  he 
was  unable  to  accept  the  offer,  and  placed  in  the  Ad 
miral's  hands  a  letter  which  explained  the  reasons  of 
his  decision ;  and  Lord  Howe  in  reply  acknowledged, 
mournfully  enough,  that  opinions  in  politics,  on  points 
of  such  national  moment  as  the  differences  subsisting 
between  England  and  America,  should  be  treated  like 
opinions  in  religion,  wherein  everyone  was  at  liberty 
to  regulate  his  conduct  by  those  ideas  which  he  had 
adopted  upon  due  reflection  and  enquiry.  Cartwright 
continued  to  reside  in  his  native  county,  respected  and 
loved  by  young  and  old. 

#•##**** 

It  has  happened  again  and  again  that,  when  a  nation 
is  engaged  in  serious  hostilities,  the  partisans  of  peace 
have  been  exposed  xo  humiliating,  and  sometimes  very 
unmerciful,  treatment  from  outbreaks  of  popular  vio 
lence.  But  opponents  of  the  American  war  had  in 
this  respect  very  little  to  complain  about.  ...  It 
must  have  been  seldom  indeed  that  any  friend  of 
America,  in  any  city  of  England,  was  harshly  or  dis 
respectfully  used  by  those  among  his  neighbors  who 
belonged  to  the  war  party.  .  .  .  That  such  methods 
[of  openly  defying  the  Court] ,  without  entailing  any 
disagreeable  consequences  on  those  who  employed 
them,  should  have  been  put  in  practice  against  a  Min 
istry  which  was  engaged  in  the  conduct  of  an  impor 
tant  war,  is  an  indirect,  but  a  most  material,  proof  that 
the  war  itself  was  disliked  by  the  nation.  The  direct 


TREVELYAN'S    AMERICAN    REVOLUTION      145 

proof  is  stronger  yet;  for  at  many  County  meetings 
there  was  a  resolution,  at  most  banquets  a  whole  string 
of  flowery  sentiments,  and  prominent  in  every  petition 
and  address  an  emphatic  paragraph,  all  of  which  de 
noted  friendliness  towards  America,  and  exhaled 
hearty  aspirations  for  an  immediate  peace.  .  .  . 
Anti-war  meetings  always  passed  off  quietly  [i.  e., 
without  interruption]  between  1776  and  1782.  .  .  \ 
There  exists  one  tenable  theory,  and  one  only,  to 
account  for  the  tranquillity  and  security  amid  which 
those,  who  opposed  the  Government  on  the  question 
of  America,  were  able  to  carry  forward  their  political 
operations.  The  rational  explanation  is  that  the  dis 
favor  beneath  which,  from  other  causes,  the  Ministry 
had  long  and  deservedly  labored,  instead  of  being 
diminished,  was  confirmed  and  aggravated  by  the  war. 


II 

THE  POWER  OF  GEORGE  III 

EXTRACTS   FROM   G.    O.   TREVELYAN'S   GEORGE    THE 
THIRD   AND  CHARLES  FOX. 

.  .  .  But  corruption,  and  servility,  and  perverted 
party  spirit,  were  still1  powerful  enough  to  maintain 
the  ministerial  members  at  their  usual  figure ;  and  the 
address  was  carried  by  two  hundred  and  forty-three 
votes  to  eighty-six.  Gibbon,  who  went  with  the  ma 
jority,  told  Horace  Walpole  that,  if  it  had  not  been 
for  shame,  there  were  hardly  twenty  men  in  the  House 
who  were  not  ready  to  vote  for  peace.  ' '  I  did  not, ' '  said 
Walpole,  "  think  it  very  decent  for  so  sensible  a  man 
to  support  the  war,  and  make  such  a  confession. ' ' 
*****  *  # 

The  House  was  terribly  excited.  It  was  one  of  those 
sudden  storms  of  passionate  emotion  when  men  of  high 
character  and  dignity  are  betrayed  into  actions  which 
they  never  afterwards  love  to  remember.  Burke  taunted 
the  Solicitor-General  with  having  accepted  a  retainer 
as  standing  counsel  for  such  a  client  as  Lord  George 
Germaine;  and  Wedderburn  told  Burke  that  he  did 
not  know  how  to  behave  himself,  and  must  be  taught 

'In  the  autumn  of  1777. 

146 


THE  POWER  OF  GEORGE  III  147 

to  mend  his  manners.  Burke  walked  out  of  the  House, 
making  a  sign  for  Wedderburn  to  follow;  and  their 
friends  had  some  difficulty  in  averting  a  duel  which 
might  have  resulted  in  a  catastrophe  almost  too  serious 
to  contemplate. 


George  the  Third  knew  his  House  of  Commons  by 
heart,  and  he  could  read  the  signs  of  the  political 
weather  better  than  any  of  his  Cabinet.  He  was  too 
strong  a  man  to  underrate  the  abilities  of  those  whom 
he  disliked ;  he  recognized  the  extraordinary  powers  of 
Charles  Fox ;  and  he  was  not  blind  to  the  growing  influ 
ence  of  one  in  whom  he  had  long  seen  an  antagonist, 
and  now  began  to  foresee  a  rival.  Moreover  he  set  great 
store  on  Sandwich,  who  was  a  statesman  exactly  to 
his  mind.  Subservient  in  the  Closet,  masterful  and 
overbearing  in  the  Cabinet,  and  a  fearless  bully  in 
debate,  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  was  always 
ready  to  accept  the  King's  views  on  policy,  to  impose 
them  upon  his  own  colleagues,  and  to  champion  them 
against  all  comers  in  Parliament.  Such  a  Minister  was 
too  precious  to  be  thrown  away  or  abandoned,  however 
unseemly  his  private  life,  and  however  deplorably  mis 
managed  might  be  the  public  department  committed 
to  his  care.  George  the  Third  had  been  greatly  alarmed 
when  Fox  so  very  nearly  carried  his  first  vote  of  cen 
sure  on  the  third  of  March.1  As  soon  as  the  master 
learned  that  a  servant,  whom  he  highly  valued,  had 

'1779. 


148  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

only  been  saved  from  a  crushing  condemnation  by  a 
small  margin  of  votes,  he  at  once  resolved  upon  sharp 
and  uncompromising  action.  The  division  had  taken 
place  late  at  night(;  and  the  next  morning,  before  most 
of  those  who  bore  a  part  in  it  had  left  their  beds,  King 
George  was  already  expressing  to  Lord  North  by  letter 
his  indignation  at  the  number  of  Ministerialists  who 
had  shamefully  failed  in  their  duty,  and  his  deter 
mination  to  adopt  any  means,  which  he  could  person 
ally  take,  in  order  to  suppress  such  irregularities  in 
the  future.  "The  list  of  the  House  of  Commons,"  he 
wrote,  "has  I  trust  been  so  accurately  prepared  that 
there  will  be  no  difficulty  in  knowing  whose  attention 
must  be  quickened.  I  trust  Lord'  North  will  not  let 
his  usual  good  nature  accept  excuses  upon  this  occa 
sion.  It  is  the  good  of  my  service,  that  calls  forth  sever 
ity.''  Severe  enough,  in  all  conscience,  his  Majesty 
showed  himself.  He  left  it  to  the  Prime  Minister  to 
see  that  all  defaulters  in  civil  employment  were 
"strongly  spoke  to";  and  meanwhile  he  took  into  his 
own  hands  the  officers  of  the  Army,  who  abounded  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  who  for  the  most  part 
shared  the  feelings  of  the  Navy  with  regard  to  Lord 
Sandwich.  The  King  desired  the  Acting  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  Forces  to  call  to  account  the  colonels,  cap 
tains,  and  subalterns ;  and  he  stated  it  as  his  decided 
opinion  that  generals,  who  held  those  governorships  of 
fortresses  which  were  the  special  prizes  of  the  service, 
should  lose  them  for  opposing  the  wishes  of  the  Crown. 
That  trebling  of  the  Government  majority,  which  took 
place  on  the  second  vote  of  censure,  affords  a  remark- 


THE  POWER  OF  GEORGE  III  149 

able  indication  of  the  multitude  of  place-men  who 
then  sat  in  Parliament,  and  a  measure  of  the  King's 
industry  and  dexterity  in  manipulating  a  division-list. 
His  strength  of  will  was  seldom  more  effectually  dis 
played  than  when,  with  public  sentiment  almost  unani 
mously  against  him,  he  kept  Lord  Sandwich  safe  in 
office  on  the  morrow  of  a  flagrant  personal  scandal, 
and  on  the  eve  of  a  fresh  naval  war.  England  was  con 
demned  to  encounter  Spain,  as  well  as  France,  in 
mortal  combat,  with  that  Old  Man  of  the  Sea  triumph 
antly  and  irremovably  mounted  on  her  shoulders. 


The  liberties  of  Britain  had  been  in  jeopardy  from 
the  moment  when  George  the  Third,  in  the  full  vigor  of 
early  manhood,  and  with  a  force  of  will,  and  determin 
ation  of  purpose,  which  almost  reached  the  level  of 
genius,  set  himself  deliberately  to  build  up  a  solid  and 
enduring  structure  of  personal  government.  To  main 
tain  in  power  ministers  of  his  own  choice,  irrespective 
of  the  estimation  in  which  they  were  held  by  their 
countrymen ;  to  exercise  his  veto  on  legislation,  not  by 
announcing  through  the  mouth  of  the  Clerk  of  the  Par 
liaments  that  the  King  would  further  consider  the 
matter,  but  by  contriving  that  the  measures  which 
he  disapproved  should  be  defeated  in  the  Lobby  of  one 
or  another  of  the  two  Houses ;  "  to  secure  to  the  Court 
the  unlimited  and  uncontrolled  use  of  its  vast  influ 
ence,  under  the  sole  direction  of  its  private  favor"; 
those  were  the  objects  which  he  pursued,  and  attained, 
by  methods  opposed  to  the  spirit,  but  compatible  with 


150  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

the  processes,  of  the  Constitution.  The  King  had  the 
wit  to  see  "that  the  forms  of  a  free,  and  the  ends  of 
an  arbitrary,  government,"  might  be  reconciled  by  a 
course  of  action  which  avoided  the  outward  show  of 
despotism.  Before  he  had  been  ten  years  on  the  throne 
he  was  in  a  fair  way  to  succeed  where  Charles  the 
First  and  James  the  Second  had  failed;  and  his 
policy,  while  less  fraught  with  peril  to  the  safety  of 
the  monarch  than  was  the  policy  of  the  Stuarts, 
was  infinitely  more  demoralizing  to  the  character  of  the 
nation.  George  the  Third  had  no  occasion  to  march 
his  Guards  to  Westminster,  or  commit  the  leaders  of 
the  Opposition  to  the  Tower  of  London,  as  long  as  he 
could  make  sure  of  a  parliamentary  majority  by  an 
unscrupulous  abuse  of  Government  patronage,  and, 
where  need  was,  by  direct  and  downright  bribery. 
1 '  The  power  of  the  Crown, ' '  said  Burke,  ' '  almost  dead 
and  rotten  as  Prerogative,  has  grown  up  anew,  with 
much  more  strength,  and  far  less  odium,  under  the 
name  of  Influence."  Everything,  so  this  famous  pa 
triot  declared,  had  been  drawn  from  its  holdings  in 
the  country  to  the  personal  favor  of  the  prince.  That 
favor  was  the  sole  introduction  to  office,  and  the  sole 
tenure  by  which  it  was  held;  until  at  last  servility 
had  become  prevalent,  and  almost  universal,  * '  in  spite 
of  the  dead  letter  of  any  laws  and  institutions  what 
soever.  ' ' 

The  machinery  of  corruption  was  worked  under  the 
habitual  and  minute  supervision  of  the  King ;  and  with 
good  reason.  In  previous  reigns  the  leaders  of  both 
parties — Harley  and  Bolingbroke,  and  Walpole  and 


THE  POWER  OF  GEOEGE  III  151 

Newcastle — had  bribed  to  keep  themselves  in  office; 
and  now  George  the  Third  was  bribing,  on  his  own  ac 
count,  in  order  to  retain  in  his  own  hands  the  secure 
possession  of  autocratic  power.  The  unsavory  reve 
lations  that  appear  on  almost  every  page  of  the  royal 
letters  to  Lord  North  enable  us  faintly  to  conjecture 
the  character  of  those  still  less  avowable  secrets  which 
did  not  bear  to  be  recorded  in  black  and  white,  and 
were  reserved  for  a  private  conversation  between  the 
monarch  and  the  minister.  The  official  correspondence 
which  the  King  most  thoroughly  enjoyed  was  that 
which  he  exchanged  with  Mr.  John  Robinson,  the  Pa 
tronage  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  who  was  prover 
bially  known  for  as  shrewd  and  shameless  a  trafficker 
in  the  human  conscience  as  ever  priced  a  rotten  bor 
ough,  or  slipped  a  bank  bill  into  the  palm  of  a  waver 
ing  senator.  All  the  departments  of  electoral  and 
parliamentary  management  were  administered  by  this 
adroit  and  devoted  servant  beneath  the  close  and  con 
stant  inspection  of  the  master's  eye.  When  a  general 
election  was  in  prospect  the  King  began  to  save  up  a 
special  fund  to  meet  the  initial  expenses  of  the  con 
test.  He  knew  the  circumstances  of  all  the  landed  pro 
prietors  who  had  a  borough  at  their  disposal — which 
of  them  could  afford  to  keep  back  one  of  his  two  seats 
for  a  son  or  a  nephew,  and  which  of  them  was  pre 
pared  to  part  with  both ;  how  many  of  them  would  be 
content  to  take  their  money  in  pounds  and  how  many 
would  stand  out  for  guineas.  He  condescended  even 
to  those  ignoble  details  which  the  least  fastidious  of 
parliamentary  candidates  leaves  to  the  sinister  indus- 


152          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

try  of  a  subordinate  agent.  "Lord  North,"  he  wrote, 
1 '  acquainted  me  with  his  wish  of  supporting  Mr.  Pow- 
ney  for  the  borough  of  New  Windsor.  I  shall  get  my 
tradesmen  encouraged  to  appear  for  him.  I  shall  order, 
in  consequence  of  Mr.  Robinson's  hint,  the  houses  I 
rent  in  Windsor  to  stand  in  the  parish  rate  in  different 
names  of  my  servants,  so  that  will  create  six  votes." 

When  the  King  had  got  his  nominees  duly  elected  to 
Parliament  he  did  not  abandon  them  to  their  own 
devices,  but  took  excellent  care  that  they  should  per 
form  his  behests  within  the  walls  of  Westminster. 
Before  he  sat  down  to  his  early  breakfast  on  the  morn 
ing  after  a  critical  division  he  already  had  looked  to 
see  whether  any  of  their  names  were  missing  on  the 
list  of  ministerial  voters.  Tellers  of  the  Exchequer 
and  Storekeepers  of  the  Ordnance,  and  Vice-Treas 
urers  of  Ireland,  and  Paymasters  of  Marines,  and 
Rangers  of  the  Royal  Forests,  and  Registrars  of  the 
Chancery  of  Barbadoes,  and  Grooms  of  the  Bed 
chamber,  and  holders  of  open  pensions  for  life,  and 
holders  of  secret  pensions  during  pleasure,  and  Clerks 
of  the  Board  of  Green  Cloth,  and  the  eight  Lords  of 
Trade  marching  to  order  like  the  section  of  an  infan 
try  regiment,  and  the  whole  crowd  of  place-holders 
from  the  King's  Turnspit,  who  hired  a  poor  wretch  at 
two  shillings  a  week  to  perform  his  functions  in  the 
Royal  Kitchen,  up  to  the  Envoy  Extraordinary  at 
the  Court  of  Savoy,  "who  made  a  sinecure  of  his  post, 
and  left  a  secretary  at  Turin,  while  he  enjoyed  his 
friends  and  his  bottle  in  London" — these  remarkable 
senators,  one  and  all,  were  perfectly  aware  that,  while 


THE  POWER  OF  GEORGE  III  153 

they  were  free  to  neglect  their  official  duties  at  Dublin, 
or  Portsmouth,  or  in  the  West  Indies,  or  on  the  Con 
tinent  of  Europe,  they  would  have  to  be  inside  the 
House  of  Commons  when  the  door  was  shut,  and  the 
question  put,  or  their  gracious  sovereign  would  know 
the  reason  why.  When  there  were  not  enough  well- 
paid  appointments  to  go  round  the  whole  circle  of 
expectants  those  left  out  in  the  cold  were  conciliated 
by  a  round  sum  in  hard  cash.  "Mr.  Kobinson,"  said 
his  Majesty,  "shewed  his  usual  propriety  in  trans 
mitting  to  me  last  night  the  list  of  speakers  in  the 
debate,  as  well  as  of  the  division.  I  take  this  oppor 
tunity  of  sending  £6000  to  be  placed  to  the  same  ac 
count  as  that  sent  on  the  21st  of  August. "  The  means 
which  the  King  employed  were  sanctified  in  his  own 
mind  by  the  ideal  perfection  of  the  object  at  which  he 
was  aiming.  "It  is  attachment  to  my  country,"  he 
wrote,  "that  alone  actuates  my  purposes;  and*  Lord 
North  shall  see  that  at  least  there  is  one  person  willing 
to  preserve  unspoiled  the  most  beautiful  combination 
that  ever  was."  It  was  a  combination  which  has  pre 
sented  itself  under  a  very  different  aspect  to  honest 
and  discerning  Englishmen.  "Of  all  ingenious  instru 
ments  of  despotism,"  said  Sydney  Smith,  "I  must 
commend  a  popular  assembly  where  the  majority  are 
paid  and  hired,  and  a  few  bold  and  able  men,  by  their 
brave  speeches,  make  the  people  believe  that  they  are 
free." 

The  enormous,  and  perpetually  growing,  cost  of  this 
flagitious  system,  was  ostensibly  provided  by  the  King 
himself  from  the  resources  at  his  own  command.  George 


154  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

the  Third  called  the  tune,  because  he  paid,  or  was  sup 
posed  to  pay,  for  the  music.  A  Civil  List  of  three-quar 
ters  of  a  million  pounds  a  year  had  been  settled  on  him, 
once  for  all,  at  the  commencement  of  his  reign,  and 
was  exempt  thenceforward  from  the  control  of  Par 
liament.  He  enjoyed,  on  the  same  agreeable  conditions, 
the  receipts  from  the  Duchies  of  Cornwall  and  Lan 
caster;  whatever  surplus  he  could  draw  from  the 
Kingdom  of  Hanover,  and  the  Bishopric  of  Osnaburgh ; 
lucrative  Admiralty  dues,  and  Crown  rights,  and 
various  odds  and  ends  of  taxation  then  regarded  as 
perquisites  of  the  monarch — as  well  as  the  hereditary 
revenues  of  Scotland,  and  the  Civil  List  of  Ireland, 
which  was  a  veritable  gold  mine  of  pensions  and  sal 
aries  for  obsequious  English  politicians  who  did  as  the 
King  bade  them  at  Westminster.  The  entire  sum  ex 
ceeded  a  million  annually,  at  a  time  when  the  average 
expenditure  of  the  country,  in  a  year  of  peace,  fell  con 
siderably  short  of  five  millions.  The  English  Civil 
List  was  encumbered  with  the  stipends  of  the  Judges, 
and  with  the  outfit  and  maintenance  of  British  Min 
isters  abroad,  whether  they  were  living  at  their  posts 
in  the  capitals  to  which  they  were  accredited,  or 
whether  they  were  tippling,  and  voting,  with  the  Bed- 
fords  in  London ;  but  otherwise  the  whole  of  this  colos 
sal  fund  was  at  the  absolute  and  unfettered  disposal 
of  the  monarch. 


The  fact  was  that  most  of  the  ready  cash  which 
ought  by  rights  to  have  gone  in  paying  the  King's 


THE  POWER  OF  GEORGE  III  155 

butcher,  and  grocer,  and  coach-maker,  had  been  con 
sumed  in  buying  Members  of  Parliament ;  in  corrupt 
ing  the  daily  Press;  in  subsidizing  needy  men  of  let 
ters  on  a  scale  of  remuneration  much  higher  than 
their  pens  would  have  commanded  in  the  open  market ; 
and  in  persecuting  authors,  publishers,  printers,  com 
positors,  and  printers '  devils  for  their  respective  shares 
in  the  production  of  pamphlets  and  newspaper  arti 
cles  which  displeased  the  Court.  Those  ruinously  ex 
pensive  operations  had  been  in  full  swing  ever  since 
the  date  when  the  young  King  first  made  up  his  mind 
to  assert  the  power  of  the  Crown  by  putting  Pitt  out, 
and  Bute  in.  George  the  Third  speedily  exhausted  the 
hundred  and  seventy  thousand  pounds  of  savings  left 
him  by  his  wise  old  grandfather,  who  found  it  cheaper, 
as  well  as  less  troublesome,  to  govern  through  a  Min 
ister  possessing  the  confidence  of  Parliament  and  the 
country ;  he  emptied  the  Privy  Purse ;  and  he  incurred 
in  addition  heavy  obligations  which  he  was  totally  un 
able  to  meet.  In  February  1769  Parliament  was  asked 
for  a  cool  half  million  to  defray  the  King's  debts.  The 
essential  nature  of  the  demand  was  analyzed  and  ex 
posed  by  George  Grenville  and  Barre  in  the  one  House 
and  by  Lord  Chatham  in  the  other.  They  openly  af 
firmed — what  every  one  of  their  hearers  in  his  secret 
conscience  knew  to  be  true — that  the  money,  which 
the  British  people  had  contributed  in  perfect  good 
faith  towards  supporting  their  monarch  in  ease  and 
dignity,  was  used  to  debauch  the  virtue  of  their  own 
elected  representatives,  and  to  poison  the  wells  of 
politics. 


156  BUEKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

FROM  w.  E.  H.  LECKY'S  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND  IN  THE 

EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

George  III  mixed  very  little  in  the  world — scarcely 
at  all  with  the  young  nobility.  His  mother  said  that 
their  lax  manners  would  probably  corrupt  her  son. 
Her  enemies  declared  that  the  real  explanation  of  this 
strange  seclusion  was  her  own  insatiable  avarice  of 
power,  which  made  her  wish  beyond  all  things  to  estab 
lish  a  complete  ascendency  over  his  mind,  and  to  with 
draw  him  from  every  influence  that  could  rival  her 
own.  Like  most  members  of  German  royal  families, 
she  exaggerated  the  prerogative  of  monarchy  to  the 
highest  degree,  and  her  favorite  exhortation,  "George, 
be  a  king ! "  is  said  to  have  left  a  deep  impression  on 

the  mind  of  her  son. 

•    •****« 

The  new  Sovereign  came  to  the  throne  amid  an  en 
thusiasm  such  as  England  had  hardly  seen  since 
Charles  II  restored  the  monarchy.  By  the  common 
consent  of  all  parties  the  dynastic  contest  was  regarded 
as  closed,  and  after  two  generations  of  foreign  and 
unsympathetic  rulers,  the  nation,  which  has  always 
been  peculiarly  intolerant  of  strangers,  accepted  with 
delight  an  English  king.  The  favorable  impression 
was  still  further  confirmed  when  the  more  salient 
points  of  the  private  character  of  the  King  became 
generally  understood.  Simple,  regular,  and  abstemi 
ous  in  all  his  tastes  and  habits,  deeply  religious  with 
out  affectation  of  enthusiasm,  a  good  son,  a  faithful 
husband,  a  kind  master,  and  (except  when  he  had  met 
with  erross  ingratitude)  an  affectionate  father,  he  ex- 


THE  POWER  OF  GEORGE  III  157 

hibited  through  his  whole  reign,  and  in  a  rare  perfec 
tion,  that  type  of  dercorous  and  domestic  virtue  which 
the  English  middle  classes  most  highly  prize.  The 
proclamation  against  immorality  with  which  he  began 
his  reign ;  the  touching  piety  with  which,  at  his  corona 
tion,  he  insisted  on  putting  aside  his  crown  when  re 
ceiving  the  sacrament ;  his  rebuke  to  a  Court  preacher 
who  had  praised  him  in  a  sermon ;  his  suppression  of 
Sunday  levees;  his  discouragement  of  gambling  at 
Court ;  his  letter  of  remonstrance  to  an  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  who  had  allowed  balls  in  his -palace;  his 
constant  attendance  and  reverential  manner  at  re 
ligious  services ;  his  solemn  and  pious  resignation  un 
der  great  private  misfortunes,  contrasted  admirably 
with  the  open  immorality  of  his  father,  his  grand 
father,  and  his  great-grandfather,  and  with  the 
outrageous  licentiousness  of  his  own  brothers  and  of 
his  own  sons.  He  never  sought  for  popularity ;  but  he 
had  many  of  the  kingly  graces,  and  many  of  the 
national  tastes  that  are  most  fitted  to  obtain  it.  He 
went  through  public  ceremonies  with  much  dignity, 
and  although  his  manner  in  private  was  hurried  and 
confused,  it  was  kind  and  homely,  and  not  without  a 
certain  unaffected  grace.  Unlike  his  two  predecessors, 
he  was  emphatically  a  gentleman,  and  he  possessed  to 
a  rare  degree  the  royal  art  of  enhancing  small  favors 
by  a  gracious  manner  and  a  few  well-chosen  words. 
His  country  tastes,  his  love  of  field  sports,  his  keen 
interest  in  the  great  public  schools,  endeared  him  to 
large  classes  of  his  subjects ;  and,  though  he  was  neither 
brilliant  nor  witty,  several  of  his  terse  and  happy 


158  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

sayings  are  still  remembered.  He  was  also  a  very 
brave  man.  In  the  Wilkes  riots,  in  1769,  when  his 
palace  was  attacked ;  in  the  Lord  George  Gordon  riots, 
in  1780,  when  his  presence  of  mind  contributed  largely 
to  save  London ;  in  1786,  when  a  poor  madwoman  at 
tempted  to  stab  him  at  the  entrance  of  St.  James's 
Palace ;  in  1795,  when  he  was  assailed  on  his  way  to 
Parliament ;  in  1800,  when  he  was  fired  at  in  a  theater, 
he  exhibited  the  most  perfect  composure  amid  danger. 
His  habit  in  dating  his  letters,  of  marking,  not  only 
the  day,  but  the  hour  and  the  minute  in  which  he 
wrote,  illustrates  not  unhappily  the  microscopic  at 
tention  which  he  paid  to  every  detail  of  public  busi 
ness,  and  which  was  the  more  admirable  because  his 
natural  tendency  was  towards  sloth.  In  matters  that 
were  not  connected  with  his  political  prejudices,  Jris 
sincere  appreciation  of  piety,  and  his  desire  to  do 
good,  sometimes  overcame  his  religious  bigotry  and  his 
hatred  of  change.  Thus  he  always  spoke  with  respect 
of  the  Methodists,  and  especially  of  Lady  Huntingdon ; 
he  supported  Howard,  and  subscribed  to  a  statue  in 
his  honor ;  he  supported  the  Lancaster  system  of  edu 
cation,  though  Lancaster  was  a  Dissenter,  and  was 
looked  upon  with  disfavor  by  the  bishops ;  he  encour 
aged  the  movement  for  Sunday  schools.  He  was  sin 
cerely  desirous  of  doing  his  duty,  and  deeply  attached 
to  his  country,  although  stronger  feelings  often  inter 
fered  both  with  his  conscientiousness  and  with  his 
patriotism. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  a  sovereign  of  whom  all  this 
may  be  truly  said  should  have  obtained  much  respect 


THE  POWER  OF  GEORGE  III  159 

and  admiration;  and  it  must  be  added  that,  in  his 
hatred  of  innovation  and  in  his  vehement  anti-Amer 
ican,  anti-Catholic,  and  anti-Gallican  feelings,  he  rep 
resented  the  sentiments  of  large  sections — perhaps  of 
the  majority — of  his  people.  The  party  which  he  drew 
from  its  depression  has  naturally  revered  his  memory, 
and  old  age,  and  blindness,  and  deafness,  and  depriva 
tion  of  reason,  and  the  base  ingratitude  of  two  sons, 
have  cast  a  deep  pathos  over  his  closing  years. 

All  these  things  have  contributed  very  naturally  to 
throw  a  delusive  veil  over  the  political  errors  of  a  sov 
ereign  of  whom  it  may  be  said,  without  exaggeration, 
that  he  inflicted  more  profound  and  enduring  injuries 
upon  his  country  than  any  other  modern  English  king, 
Ignorant,  narrow-minded,  and  arbitrary,  with  an  un 
bounded  confidence  in  his  own  judgment  and  an  ex 
travagant  estimate  of  his  prerogative,  resolved  at  all 
hazards  to  compel  his  ministers  to  adopt  his  own  views, 
or  to  undermine  them  if  they  refused,  he  spent  a  long 
life  in  obstinately  resisting  measures  which  are  now 
almost  universally  admitted  to  have  been  good,  and 
in  supporting  measures  which  are  as  universally  ad 
mitted  to  have  been  bad.  He  espoused  with  passionate 
eagerness  the  American  quarrel;  resisted  obstinately 
the  measures  of  conciliation  by  which  at  one  time  it 
might  easily  have  been  stifled;  envenomed  it  by  his 
glaring  partisanship,  and  protracted  it  for  several 
years,  in  opposition  to  the  wish  and  to  the  advice  even 
of  his  own  favorite  and  responsible  minister.  He  took 
the  warmest  personal  interest  in  the  attempts  that 
were  made,  in  the  matter  of  general  warrants,  to  men- 


160  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

ace  the  liberty  of  the  subject,  and  in  the  case  of  the 
Middlesex  election  to  abridge  the  electoral  rights  of 
constituencies,  and  in  the  other  paltry,  violent,  and 
arbitrary  measures  by  which  the  country  was  inflamed 
and  Wilkes  was  converted  into  a  hero.  The  last  in 
stance  of  an  English  officer  deprived  of  his  regiment 
for  his  vote  in  Parliament  was  due  to  the  personal  in 
tervention  of  the  King;  and  the  ministers  whom  he 
most  warmly  favored  were  guilty  of  an  amount  and 
audacity  of  corruption  which  is  probably  unequalled 
in  the  parliamentary  history  of  England.  All  the 
measures  that  were  carried  or  attempted  with  the 
object  of  purifying  the  representative  body — the  pub 
lication  of  debates,  the  alteration  of  the  mode  of  try 
ing  contested  elections,  the  reduction  of  sinecures  and 
pensions,  the  enlargement  of  the  constituencies — were 
contrary  to  the  wishes  of  the  King.  Although  his 
income  during  the  greater  part  of  his  reign  was  little 
less  than  a  million  a  year,  although  his  Court  was  par 
simonious  to  a  fault,  and  his  hospitality  exceedingly 
restricted,  and  although  he  succeeded  to  a  considerable 
sum  that  had  been  saved  by  his  predecessor,  he  accumu 
lated  in  the  course  of  his  reign  debts  to  the  amount  of 
no  less  than  £3,398,061 ;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  contemporary  public  opinion  was  right  in  attrib 
uting  a  great  part  of  these  debts  to  corrupt  expendi 
ture  in  Parliament  or  at  elections.  Of  all  the  portions 
of  the  Empire  none  was  so  impoverished,  distracted, 
and  misgoverned  as  Ireland,  but  every  attempt  to 
improve  its  condition  found  in  the  King  a  bitter  ad 
versary.  He  opposed  the  relaxation  of  the  laws  by 


THE  POWER  OF  GEORGE  III  161 

which  Irish  commerce  had  been  crushed,  although  his 
own  Tory  ministers  were  in  favor  of  it.  He  opposed 
Catholic  emancipation  with  a  persistent  bitterness, 
although  that  measure  alone  could  have  made  the  Irish 
union  acceptable  to  the  people,  and  although  his  min 
ister  had  virtually  pledged  himself  to  grant  it,  and  by 
his  refusal  he  consigned  the  country  to  a  prolonged  and 
disastrous  agitation,  the  effects  of  which  may  never 
disappear.  He  opposed  the  endowment  of  the  Catholic 
clergy,  although  statesmen  of  the  most  various  schools 
concurred  in  the  belief  that  no  other  measure  would 
act  so  beneficially  on  the  social  condition  of  Ireland, 
or  would  so  effectually  tranquilize  the  minds  of  people. 
He  refused  to  consent  to  throw  open  the  higher  ranks 
in  the  army  to  the  Catholics,  although  that  measure 
had  already  been  conceded  to  the  army  in  Ireland  by 
the  Irish  Parliament  and  he  flung  the  country  into 
all  the  agonies  of  a  "No  Popery"  dissolution  at  the 
very  time  when  a  fearful  struggle  with  France  was 
demanding  the  utmost  unanimity,  and  when  thousands 
of  Catholic  soldiers  were  fighting  bravely  in  his  cause. 
In  the  same  spirit  he  supported  the  slave  trade;  he 
described  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts  as  the  palladi 
um  of  the  Constitution,  and  was  inexorably  opposed  to 
their  abolition,  and  he  created  Tory  peers  in  such 
lavish  numbers,  and  with  such  an  exclusive  view  to 
their  political  subserviency,  that  he  seriously  lowered 
the  character  and  fundamentally  altered  the  tendencies 
of  the  House  of  Lords.  In  a  word,  there  is  scarcely 
a  field  of  politics  in  which  the  hand  of  the  King  may 
not  be  traced — sometimes  in  postponing  inevitable 


162  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

measures  of  justice  and  reform,  sometimes  in  sowing 
the  seeds  of  enduring  evil. 


The  relations  of  the  Crown  to  the  ministry  were  to 
be  changed.  For  a  considerable  time  the  Treasury, 
the  ecclesiastical  patronage,  the  Cornish  boroughs,  and 
all  the  other  sources  of  influence  which  belonged  nom 
inally  to  the  Crown,  had  been,  with  few  exceptions,  at 
the  disposal  of  the  minister,  and  were  employed  to 
strengthen  his  administration.  They  were  now  to  be  in 
a  great  degree  withdrawn  from  his  influence,  and  to  be 
employed  in  maintaining  in  Parliament  a  body  of  men 
whose  political  attachment  centered  in  the  King  alone, 
who  looked  to  him  alone  for  promotion,  who,  though 
often  holding  places  in  the  Government,  were  ex 
pected  rather  to  control  than  to  support  it,  and,  if  it 
diverged  from  the  policy  which  was  personally  ac 
ceptable  to  the  King,  to  conspire  against  it  and  over 
throw  it.  A  Crown  influence  was  thus  to  be  estab 
lished  in  Parliament  as  well  as  a  ministerial  influence, 
and  it  was  hoped  that  it  would  turn  the  balance  of 
parties  and  accelerate  the  downfall  of  any  adminis 
tration  which  was  not  favored  by  the  King. 
******* 

Lord  Henley,  a  coarse,  drunken,  and  unprincipled 
lawyer,  became  one  of  the  most  docile  and  useful 
agents  of  the  policy  of  the  King.  The  enterprise  of 
giving  Bute  high  political  office  was  found  somewhat 
difficult,  but  a  characteristic  method  was  adopted. 
Lord  Holdernesse,  who,  though  a  man  of  very  insig- 


THE  POWER  OF  GEORGE  III  163 

nificant  abilities,  was  a  Secretary  of  State,  agreed  with 
Bute,  as  early  as  November,  1760,  to  quarrel  with  his 
colleagues,  and  throw  up  his  office  in  seeming  anger. 
The  resignation  was  for  a  time  deferred ;  but  it  was 
accomplished  in  March  1761.  Lord  Holdernesse  ob 
tained  a  pension  of  £4,000  a  year  for  life,  and  a  rever 
sion  of  the  Cinque  Ports,  and  his  place  was  filled  by  the 
favorite.  Nearly  at  the  same  time,  Legge,  the  Chan 
cellor  of  the  Exchequer,  who  had  some  time  before 
quarreled  with  Bute  about  a  Hampshire  election,  was 
dismissed  with  circumstances  of  great  discourtesy,  and 
his  place  was  filled  by  Lord  Barrington — an  honest 
man,  but  one  who  adopted  and  avowed  the  principle 
that  it  was  his  duty  always,  except  in  case  of  the  grav 
est  possible  causes  of  difference,  to  support  the  minis 
ters  selected  by  the  King,  whatever  party  or  connec 
tion  they  belonged  to,  and  whatever  might  be  his 
opinion  of  the  men  and  of  their  measures.  He  was  thus 
completely  identified  with  the  King's  friends,  and  by 
the  wish  of  the  King  was  kept  in  office  through  sev 
eral  successive  administrations.  The  brilliant  but 
versatile  and  unprincipled  Charles  Townshend  filled 
his  place,  and  a  few  other  changes  were  made  which, 
though  unimportant  in  themselves,  showed  that  Tory 
tendencies,  and  especially  personal  devotion  to  the 
Sovereign,  had  become  the  passports  of  favor.  Not 
withstanding  the  professions  of  purity  that  were  made 
by  the  King's  friends,  it  was  noticed  that  the  general 
election  which  now  took  place  was  one  of  the  most  cor 
rupt  ever  known  in  England,  that  large  sums  were 
issued  by  the  Treasury,  that  the  King  took  an  active 


164          BUEKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

part  in  naming  the  candidates,  and  that  boroughs  at 
tached  to  the  Duchy  of  Cornwall,  which  had  hitherto 
been  at  the  disposal  of  the  ministry,  were  now  treated 
as  solely  at  the  disposal  of  the  Crown. 

It  was  evident  that  it  was  intended,  in  the  first 
place,  to  strike  down  Pitt;  and  an  opportunity  soon 

occurred. 

******* 

So  far  the  policy  of  the  secret  counsellors  of  the 
young  King  had  been  brilliantly  successful.  In  less 
than  twelve  months,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  war,  the 
greatest  war  minister  England  had  ever  produced 
was  overthrown,  and  the  party  with  which  the  King 
personally  sympathized  had  become  the  most  powerful 

in  the  State. 

******* 

Newcastle,  in  the  first  exultation  that  followed  the 
resignation  of  Pitt,  had  anticipated  a  renewal  of  his 
ascendency,  but  he  soon  learned  how  greatly  he  had 
miscalculated.  Although  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury, 
he  found  that  he  was  powerless  in  the  Government. 
Even  his  own  subordinates  at  the  Treasury  Bench  are 
said  to  have  been  instructed  to  slight  him.  The  most 
important  political  steps  were  taken  without  consult 
ing  him.  Cabinet  councils  were  summoned  without 
any  notice  of  the  subject  for  discussion  being  given 
him.  The  King  made  no  less  than  seven  peers  without 
even  informing  Newcastle  of  his  intention.  Neither 
his  age,  his  rank,  his  position  in  the  ministry,  nor  his 
eminent  services  to  the  dynasty,  could  save  him  from 
marked  coldness  on  the  part  of  the  King,  from  con- 


THE  POWER  OF  GEORGE  III  165 

temptuous  discourtesy  and  studied  insults  on  the  part 
of  the  favorite.  The  situation  soon  became  intolerable, 
and  when  Bute  announced  his  intention  of  withdraw 
ing  the  subsidy  which  England  paid  to  the  King  of 
Prussia,  Newcastle  refused  to  consent.  In  May,  1762, 
the  old  statesman  resigned,  refusing  with  some  dignity 
a  pension  that  was  offered  him  for  the  purpose  of 
recruiting  a  fortune  which  had  been  wrecked  in  the 
public  service.  Bute  then  became  in  name,  what  since 
the  resignation  of  Pitt  he  had  been  in  reality,  the 
head  of  the  ministry,  and  Grenville  became  Secretary 
of  State  in  his  stead. 


[The  Fox  referred  to  in  the  following  passage  was 
Henry  Fox,  the  father  of  Charles  James  Fox.] 

Then  came  a  period  of  intimidation  and  corruption 
compared  with  which  the  worst  days  of  the  Walpole 
administration  appeared  pure.  Bribes  ranging  from 
£200  and  upwards  were  given  almost  publicly  at  the 
pay  office.  Martin,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
afterwards  acknowledged  that  no  less  than  £25,000 
were  expended  in  a  single  morning  in  purchasing 
votes.  Larger  sums  are  said  to  have  been  given  to 
corporations  to  petition  for  the  peace.  Urgent  letters 
were  written  to  the  lords  lieutenant  of  the  counties 
calling  on  them  to  procure  addresses  with  the  same 
object.  From  the  very  beginning  of  the  ascendency 
of  Bute,  patronage  had  been  enlarged,  and  employed 
with  extravagant  profusion  for  the  purpose  of  increas 
ing  the  political  power  of  the  Crown,  and  this  process 


166          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

was  rapidly  extended.  Bute  did  not  venture,  like 
Harley,  to  create  simultaneously  twelve  peers,  but 
sixteen  were  made  in  the  space  of  two  years.  The 
number  of  Lords  of  the  Bedchamber  was  increased 
from  twelve  to  twenty-two,  each  with  a  salary  of  £500 
a  year,  and  they  were  selected  exclusively  from  among 
the  members  of  Parliament.  It  was  found  necessary 
to  raise  £3,500,000,  and  this  was  done  partly  by  two 
lotteries,  and  partly  by  a  loan  which  was  not  thrown 
open  to  public  competition,  and  which  was  issued  on 
terms  so  shamefully  improvident  that  the  shares  at 
once  rose  ten  per  cent.  A  large  proportion  of  these 
shares  were  distributed  among  the  friends  of  the 
Government,  and  thus  a  new  and  most  wasteful  form 
of  bribery  was  introduced  into  English  politics. 

Intimidation  of  the  grossest  kind  was  at  the  same 
time  practiced.  All  the  partisans  of  Newcastle  were 
at  once  driven  from  office,  and  some  of  the  most  prom 
inent  men  in  the  country  were  treated  with  an  ar 
rogance  that  recalled  the  worst  days  of  the  Stuarts. 
The  Duke  of  Devonshire  was  expelled  from  the  office 
of  Chamberlain  with  circumstances  of  the  grossest 
insult.  The  King  refused  even  to  see  him  on  the 
occasion,  and  with  his  own  hand  struck  his  name  from 
the  list  of  Privy  Councillors.  The  Dukes  of  Newcastle 
and  Grafton  and  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham  were 
deprived  of  the  lord-lieutenancies  of  their  counties. 
It  has  always  been  one  of  the  most  healthy  features 
of  English  political  life  that  the  public  offices  are  filled 
with  permanent  officials,  who  are  unaffected  by  party 
fluctuations,  who  instruct  alike  Whig  and  Tory  min- 


THE  POWER  OF  GEORGE  III  167 

isters,  preserve  unbroken  the  steady  tendencies  of 
government,  and  from  the  stability  of  their  position 
acquire  a  knowledge  of  administrative  details  and  an 
independence  and  impartiality  of  judgment  which 
could  never  be  reasonably  expected  from  men  whose 
tenure  of  office  was  dependent  on  the  ascendency  of  a 
party.  This  system  Fox  and  Bute  resolved  to  break 
down.  They  determined  that  every  servant  of  the 
Government,  even  to  the  very  lowest,  should  be  of 
their  own  nomination.  A  persecution  as  foolish  as  it 
was  harsh  was  directed  by  Fox  against  the  humblest 
officials  who  had  been  appointed  or  recommended  by 
Whig  statesmen,  or  were  in  any  way  connected  with 
them.  Clerks,  tidewaiters,  and  excisemen  were  in 
cluded  in  the  proscription.  The  widow  of  an  admiral 
who  was  distantly  connected  with  the  Duke  of  Devon 
shire,  a  poor  man  who  had  been  rewarded  for  bravery 
against  smugglers  at  the  recommendation  of  the  Duke 
of  Grafton,  a  schoolboy  who  was  a  nephew  of  Legge, 
were  among  those  who  were  deprived  of  places,  pen 
sions,  or  reversions.  There  was  even  a  design  of  de 
priving  the  members  of  the  Opposition  of  the  great 
patent  places  they  held,  although  the  terms  of  the 
patents  distinctly  asserted  that  the  places  were  for 
life.  Fox  wished  to  submit  to  the  twelve  judges  the 
question  whether  it  was  not  in  the  power  of  the  King 
to  annul  the  patents ;  but  the  Chancellor,  Lord  North- 
ington,  declared  that  it  would  be  as  reasonable  to  ask 
them  to  pronounce  upon  the  validity  of  the  Great 
Charter.  It  was  the  aim  of  the  Court  party  to  crush 
to  the  very  dust,  the  great  Whig  connection,  by  show- 


168  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

ing  that  no  person,  however  humble,  who  had  received 
favors  from  it  could  escape  the  vengeance  of  the 
Crown,  while  every  resource  of  patronage  and  place 
was  employed  for  the  purpose  of  consolidating  the 
new  interest.  One  official,  who  for  seven  years  had 
been  of  the  King 's  bedchamber,  was  turned  out  solely 
because  he  had  no  seat  in  Parliament,  and  could  there 
fore  be  ©f  no  use  there. 


Ill 

SELECTIONS  FROM  BURKE 
SPEECH  ON  AMERICAN  TAXATION 

On  April  19,  1774,  ' '  the  worthy  member ' '  to  whom 
Burke  refers  in  paragraph  5  of  the  Conciliation — 
Ross  Fuller — moved  to  repeal  the  tax  on  tea.  One  of 
the  numerous  ''King's  men"  who  spoke  against  the 
motion  was  Charles  W.  Cornwall,  who  had  only  re 
cently  entered  the  service  of  George  III,  and  who  ap 
parently  spoke  with  pompous  and  hypocritical  zeal, 
for  Burke  says:  "The  honorable  gentleman  has  de 
sired  some  of  us  to  lay  our  hands  upon  our  hearts,  and 
answer  to  his  queries."  Burke  replied  in  a  speech 
nearly  as  long  as  the  Conciliation : 

SIB:  I  agree  with  the  honorable  gentleman  who 
spoke  last,  that  this  subject  is  not  new  in  this  House. 
Very  disagreeably  to  this  House,  very  unfortunately 
to  this  nation,  and  to  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  this 
whole  empire,  no  topic  has  been  more  familiar  to  us. 
For  nine  long  years,  session  after  session,  we  have 
been  lashed  round  and  round  this  miserable  circle  of 
occasional  arguments  and  temporary  expedients.  I 
am  sure  our  heads  must  turn,  and  our  stomachs 
nauseate  with  them.  We  have  had  them  in  every 
shape ;  we  have  looked  at  them  in  every  point  of  view. 

169 


170          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

Invention  is  exhausted ;  reason  is  fatigued ;  experience 
has  given  judgment;  but  obstinacy  is  not  yet  con 
quered. 

The  honorable  gentleman  has  made  one  endeavor 
more  to  diversify  the  form  of  this  disgusting  argu 
ment.  He  has  thrown  out  a  speech  composed  almost 
entirely  of  challenges.  Challenges  are  serious  things ; 
and  as  he  is  a  man  of  prudence  as  well  as  resolution,  I 
dare  say  he  has  very  well  weighed  those  challenges  be 
fore  he  delivered  them.  I  had  long  the  happiness  to 
sit  at  the  same  side  of  the  House,  and  to  agree  with 
the  honorable  gentleman  on  all  the  American  ques 
tions.  My  sentiments,  I  am  sure,  are  well  known  to 
him;  and  I  thought  I  had  been  perfectly  acquainted 
with  his.  Though  I  find  myself  mistaken,  he  will  stitt 
permit  me  to  use  the  privilege  of  an  old  friendship ; 
he  will  permit  me  to  apply  myself  to  the  House  under 
the  sanction  of  his  authority;  and,  on  the  various 
grounds  he  has  measured  out,  to  submit  to  you  the  poor 
opinions  which  I  have  formed  upon  a  matter  of  im 
portance  enough  to  demand  the  fullest  consideration  I 
could  bestow  upon  it. 

But  will  you  repeal  the  act,  says  the  honorable  gen 
tleman,  at  this  instant  when  America  is  in  open  re 
sistance  to  your  authority,  and  that  you  have  just 
revived  your  system  of  taxation?  He  thinks  he  has 
driven  us  into  a  corner.  But  thus  pent  up,  I  am  con 
tent  to  meet  him ;  because  I  enter  the  lists  supported 
by  my  old  authority,  his  new  friends,  the  ministers 
themselves.  The  honorable  gentleman  remembers 


AMERICAN  TAXATION  171 

that  about  five  years  ago  as  great  disturbances  as  the 
present  prevailed  in  America  on  account  of  the  new 
taxes.  The  ministers  represented  these  disturbances 
as  treasonable ;  and  this  House  thought  proper,  on  that 
representation,  to  make  a  famous  address  for  a  revival 
and  for  a  new  application  of  a  statute  of  Henry  VIII. 
We  besought  the  king,  in  that  well-considered  address, 
to  inquire  into  treasons,  and  to  bring  the  supposed 
traitors  from  America  to  Great  Britain  for  trial.  His 
Majesty  was  pleased  graciously  to  promise  a-  compli 
ance  with  our  request.  All  the  attempts  from  this  side 
of  the  House  to  resist  these  violences,  and  to  bring 
about  a  repeal,  were  treated  with  the  utmost  scorn. 
An  apprehension  of  the  very  consequences  now  stated 
by  the  honorable  gentleman,  was  then  given  as  a  rea 
son  for  shutting  the  door  against  all  hope  of  such  an 
alteration.  And  so  strong  was  the  spirit  for  support 
ing  the  new  taxes,  that  the  session  concluded  with  the 
following  remarkable  declaration.  After  stating  the 
vigorous  measures  which  had  been  pursued,  the  speech 
from  the  throne  proceeds: 

"You  have  assured  me  of  your  firm  support  in  the 
prosecution  of  them.  Nothing,  in  my  opinion,  could 
be  more  likely  to  enable  the  well-disposed  among  my 
subjects  in  that  part  of  the  world  effectually  to  dis 
courage  and  defeat  the  designs  of  the  factious  and 
seditious  than  the  hearty  concurrence  of  every  branch 
of  the  legislature  in  maintaining  the  execution,  of  the 
laws  in  every  part  of  my  dominions". 

After  this  no  man  dreamt  that  a  repeal  under  this 
ministry  could  possibly  take  place.  The  honorable 


172  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

gentleman  knows  as  well  as  I  that  the  idea  was  utterly 
exploded  by  those  who  sway  the  House.  This  speech 
was  made  on  the  ninth  day  of  May,  1769.  Five  days 
after  this  speech — that  is,  on  the  13th  of  the  same 
month — the  public  circular  letter,  a  part  of  which  I 
am  going  to  read  to  you,  was  written  by  Lord  Hills- 
borough,  secretary  of  state  for  the  colonies.  After 
reciting  the  substance  of  the  king's  speech,  he  goes 
on  thus : 

' '  I  can  take  upon  me  to  assure  you,  notwithstanding 
insinuations  to  the  contrary,  from  men  with  factious 
and  seditious  views,  that  his  Majesty's  present  ad 
ministration  have  at  no  time  entertained  a  design  to 
propose  to  Parliament  to  lay  any  further  taxes  upon 
America  for  the  purpose  of  RAISING  A  REVENUE;  and 
that  it  is  at  present  their  intention  to  propose,  the  next 
session  of  Parliament,  to  take  off  the  duties  upon  glass, 
paper,  and  colors,  upon  consideration  of  such  duties 
having  been  laid  contrary  to  the  true  principles  of 
commerce. 

"  These  have  always  been,  and  still  are,  the  senti 
ments  of  his  Majesty 's  present  servants;  and  by  which 
their  conduct  in  respect  to  America  has  been  governed. 
And  his  Majesty  relies  upon  your  prudence  and  fidelity 
for  such  an  explanation  of  his  measures  as  may  tend 
to  remove  the  prejudices  which  have  been  excited  by 
the  misrepresentations  of  those  who  are  enemies  to  the 
peace  and  prosperity  of  Great  Britain  and  her  col 
onies;  and  to  re-establish  that  mutual  confidence  and 
affection  upon  which  the  glory  and  safety  of  the  Brit 
ish  empire  depend." 


AMERICAN  TAXATION  173 

Here,  Sir,  is  a  canonical  book  of  ministerial  scrip 
ture,  the  general  epistle  to  the  Americans.  What  does 
the  gentleman  say  to  it  ?  Here  a  repeal  is  promised ; 
promised  without  condition ;  and  while  your  authority 
was  actually  resisted.  I  pass  by  the  public  promise  of 
a  peer  relative  to  the  repeal  of  taxes  by  this  House.  I 
pass  by  the  use  of  the  king's  name  in  a  matter  of  sup 
ply,  that  sacred  and  reserved  right  of  the  Commons. 
I  conceal  the  ridiculous  figure  of  Parliament,  hurling 
its  thunders  at  the  gigantic  rebellion  of  America ;  and 
then  five  days  after  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  those  as 
semblies  we  affected  to  despise ;  begging  them,  by  the 
intervention  of  our  ministerial  sureties,  to  receive  our 
submission,  and  heartily  promising  amendment.  These 
might  have  been  serious  matters  formerly ;  but  we  are 
grown  wiser  than  our  fathers.  Passing,  therefore, 
from  the  constitutional  consideration  to  the  mere  pol 
icy,  does  not  this  letter  imply  that  the  idea  of  taxing 
America  for  the  purpose  of  revenue  is  an  abominable 
project;  when  the  ministry  suppose  that  none  but 
factious  men,  and  with  seditious  views,  could  charge 
them  with  it?  does  not  this  letter  adopt  and  sanctify 
the  American  distinction  of  taxing  for  a  revenue? 
does  it  not  formally  reject  all  future  taxation  on  that 
principle?  does  it  not  state  the  ministerial  rejection  of 
such  principle  of  taxation,  not  as  the  occasional,  but 
the  constant,  opinion  of  the  king's  servants?  does  it 
not  say  (I  care  not  how  consistently),  but  does  it  not 
say,  that  their  conduct  with  regard  to  America  has 
been  always  governed  by  this  policy  ?  It  goes<  a  great 
deal  further.  These  excellent  and  trusty  servants  of 


174          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

the  king,  justly  fearful  lest  they  themselves  should 
have  lost  all  credit  with  the  world,  bring  out  the  im 
age  of  their  gracious  sovereign  from  the  inmost  and 
most  sacred  shrine,  and  they  pawn  him  as  a  security 
for  their  promises. — *  *  His  Majesty  relies  on  your  pru 
dence  and  fidelity  for  such  an  explanation  of  his  meas 
ures."  These  sentiments  of  the  minister,  and  these 
measures  of  his  Majesty,  can  only  relate  to  the  princi 
ple  and  practice  of  taxing  for  a  revenue ;  and  accord 
ingly  Lord  Botetourt,  stating  it  as  such,  did,  with  great 
propriety,  and  in  the  exact  spirit  of  his  instructions, 
endeavor  to  remove  the  fears  of  the  Virginian  assem 
bly,  lest  the  sentiments,  which  it  seems  (unknown  to 
the  world)  had  always  been  those  of  the  ministers,  and 
by  which  their  conduct  in  respect  to  America  had  been 
governed,  should  by  some  possible  revolution,  favor 
able  to  wicked  American  taxes,  be  hereafter  counter 
acted.  He  addresses  them  in  this  manner : 

"It  may  possibly  be  objected,  that,  as  his  Majesty's 
present  administration  are  not  immortal,  their  suc 
cessors  may  be  inclined  to  attempt  to  undo  what  the 
present  ministers  shall  have  attempted  to  perform ;  and 
to  that  objection  I  can  give  but  this  answer;  that  it 
is  my  firm  opinion  that  the  plan  I  have  stated  to  you 
will  certainly  take  place;  and  that  it  will  never  be 
departed  from;  and  so  determined  am  I  for  ever  to 
abide  by  it  that  I  will  be  content  to  be  declared  in 
famous  if  I  do  not,  to  the  last  hour  of  my  life,  at  all 
times,  in  all  places,  and  upon  all  occasions,  exert  every 
power  with  which  I  either  am  or  ever  shall  be  legally 
invested,  in  order  to  obtain  and  maintain  for  the  con- 


AMERICAN  TAXATION  175 

tinent  of  America  that  satisfaction  which  I  have  been 
authorized  to  promise  this  day,  by  the  confidential 
servants  of  our  gracious  sovereign,  who  to  my  certain 
knowledge  rates  his  honor  so  high,  that  he  would  rather 
part  with  his  crown,  than  preserve  it  by  deceit". 

A  glorious  and  true  character  !  which  (since  we  suf 
fer  his  ministers  with  impunity  to  answer  for  his  ideas 
of  taxation)  we  ought  to  make  it  our  business  to  en 
able  his  Majesty  to  preserve  in  all  its  luster.  Let  him 
have  character,  since  ours  is  no  more !  Let  some  part 
of  government  be  kept  in  respect ! 

This  epistle  was  not  the  letter  of  Lord  Hillsborough 
solely;  though  he  held  the  official  pen.  It  was  the 
letter  of  the  noble  lord  upon  the  floor,1  and  of  all  the 
king's  then  ministers,  who  (with  I  think  the  exception 
of  two  only)  are  his  ministers  at  this  hour.  The  very 
first  news  that  a  British  parliament  heard  of  what  it 
was  to  do  with  the  duties  which  it  had  given  and 
granted  to  the  king,  was  by  the  publication  of  the  votes 
of  American  assemblies.  It  was  in  America  that  your 
resolutions  were  pre-declared.  It  was  from  thence 
that  we  knew  to  certainty  how  much  exactly,  and  not 
a  scruple  more  or  less,  we  were  to  repeal.  We  were 
unworthy  to  be  let  into  the  secret  of  our  own  conduct. 
The  assemblies  had  confidential  communications  from 
his  Majesty's  confidential  servants.  We  were  nothing 
but  instruments.  Do  you,  after  this,  wonder  that  you 
have  no  weight  and  no  respect  in  the  colonies  ?  After 
this  are  you  surprised,  that  Parliament  is  every  day 
and  everywhere  losing  (I  feel  it  with  sorrow,  I  utter  it 

1.     Lord  North. 


176          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

with  reluctance)  that  reverential  affection,  which  so 
endearing  a  name  of  authority  ought  ever  to  carry 
with  it ;  that  you  are  obeyed  solely  from  respect  to  the 
bayonet ;  and  that  this  House,  the  ground  and  pillar  of 
freedom,  is  itself  held  up  only  by  the  treacherous 
under-pinning  and  clumsy  buttresses  of  arbitrary 
power  ? 

If  this  dignity,  which  is  to  stand  in  the  place  of  just 
policy  and  common  sense,  had  been  consulted,  there 
was  a  time  for  preserving  it,  and  for  reconciling  it  with 
any  concession.  If  in  the  session  of  1768,  that  session 
of  idle  terror  and  empty  menaces,  you  had,  as  you 
were  often  pressed  to  do,  repealed  these  taxes;  then 
your  strong  operations  would  have  come  justified  and 
enforced,  in  case  your  concessions  had  been  returned 
by  outrages.  But,  preposterously,  you  began  with 
violence;  and  before  terrors  could  have  any  effect, 
either  good  or  bad,  your  ministers  immediately  begged 
pardon,  and  promised  that  repeal  to  the  obstinate 
Americans,  which  they  had  refused  in  an  easy,  good- 
natured,  complying  British  parliament.  The  assem 
blies,  which  had  been  publicly  and  avowedly  dissolved 
for  their  contumacy,  are  called  together  to  receive  your 
submission.  Your  ministerial  directors  blustered  like 
tragic  tyrants  here;  and  then  went  mumping  with  a 
sore  leg  in  America,  canting  and  whining,  and  com 
plaining  of  faction,  which  represented  them  as  friends 
to  a  revenue  from  the  colonies.  I  hope  nobody  in  this 
House  will  hereafter  have  the  impudence  to  defend 
American  taxes  in  the  name  of  ministry.  The  moment 
they  do,  with  this  letter  of  attorney  in  my  hand  I  will 


AMERICAN  TAXATION  177 

tell  them,  in  the  authorized  terms,  they  are  wretches, 
"with  factious  and  seditious  views;  enemies  to  the 
peace  and  prosperity  of  the  mother  country  and  the 
colonies, ' '  and  subverters  ' '  of  the  mutual  affection  and 
confidence  on  which  the  glory  and  safety  of  the  British 
empire  depend." 

After  this  letter  the  question  is  no  more  on  propri 
ety  or  dignity.  They  are  gone  already.  The  faith 
of  your  sovereign  is  pledged  for  the  political  principle. 
The  general  declaration  in  the  letter  goes  to  the  whole 
of  it.  You  must  therefore  either  abandon  the  scheme 
of  taxing ;  or  you  must  send  the  ministers  tarred  and 
feathered  to  America,  who  dared  to  hold  out  the  royal 
faith  for  a  renunciation  of  all  taxes  for  revenue.  Them 
you  must  punish,  or  this  faith  you  must  preserve. 
The  preservation  of  this  faith  is  of  more  consequence 
than  the  duties  on  red  lead  or  white  lead,  or  on  broken 
glass,  or  atlas-ordinary,  or  demy-fine,  or  blue  royal, 
or  bastard,  or  fool's-cap,  which  you  have  given  up ;  or 
the  three-pence  on  tea  which  you  retained.  The  letter 
went  stamped  with  the  public  authority  of  this  king 
dom.  The  instructions  for  the  colony  government  go 
under  no  other  sanction ;  and  America  cannot  believe, 
and  will  not  obey  you,  if  you  do  not  preserve  this  chan 
nel  of  communication  sacred.  You  are  now  punishing 
the  colonies  for  acting  on  distinctions,  held  out  by  that 
very  ministry  which  is  here  shining  in  riches,  in  favor, 
and  in  power ;  and  urging  the  punishment  of  the  very 
offence  to  which  they  had  themselves  been  the  tempters. 

Sir,  if  reasons  respecting  simply  your  own  com 
merce,  which  is  your  own  convenience,  were  the  sole 


178  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

ground  of  the  repeal  of  the  five  duties,  why  does 
Lord  Hillsborough,  in  disclaiming  in  the  name  of  the 
king  and  ministry  their  ever  having  had  an  intent  to 
tax  for  revenue,  mention  it  as  the  means  ' '  of  re-estab 
lishing  the  confidence  and  affection  of  the  colonies"? 
Is  it  a  way  of  soothing  others  to  assure  them  that  you 
will  take  good  care  of  yourself?  The  medium,  the  only 
medium,  for  regaining  their  affection  and  confidence 
is  that  you  will  take  off  something  oppressive  to  their 
minds.  Sir,  the  letter  strongly  enforces  that  idea ;  for 
though  the  repeal  of  the  taxes  is  promised  on  commer 
cial  principles,  yet  the  means  of  counteracting  ''the 
insinuations  of  men  with  factious  and  seditious  views" 
is  by  a  disclaimer  of  the  intention  of  taxing  for  reve 
nue,  as  a  constant,  invariable  sentiment  and  rule  of 
conduct  in  the  government  of  America. 

I  remember  that  the  noble  lord  on  the  floor,  not  in  a 
former  debate  to  be  sure  (it  would  be  disorderly  to 
refer  to  it;  I  suppose  I  read  it  somewhere),  but  the 
noble  lord  was  pleased  to  say  that  he  did  not  conceive 
how  it  could  enter  into  the  head  of  man  to  impose 
such  taxes  as  those  of  1767 — I  mean  those  taxes  which 
he  voted  for  imposing,  and  voted  for  repealing — as 
being  taxes  contrary  to  all  the  principles  of  commerce, 
laid  on  British  manufactures. 

I  dare  say  the  noble  lord  is  perfectly  well  read — 
because  the  duty  of  his  particular  office  requires  he 
should  be  so — in  all  our  revenue  laws  and  in  the 
policy  which  is  to  be  collected  out  of  them.  Now,  Sir, 
when  he  had  read  this  act  of  American  revenue,  and 
a  little  recovered  from  his  astonishment,  I  suppose 


AMERICAN  TAXATION  179 

he  made  one  step  retrograde  (it  is  but  one)  and  looked 
at  the  act  which  stands  just  before  in  the  statute-book. 
The  American  revenue  act  is  the  forty-fifth  chapter; 
the  other  to  which  I  refer  is  the  forty-fourth  of  the 
same  session.  These  two  acts  are  both  to  the  same 
purpose,  both  revenue  acts,  both  taxing  out  of  the 
king-dona,  and  both  taxing  British  manufactures  ex 
ported.  As  the  forty-fifth  is  an  act  for  raising  a  rev 
enue  in  America,  the  forty-fourth  is  an  act  for  raising 
a  revenue  in  the  Isle  of  Man.  The  two  acts  perfectly 
agree  in  all  respects,  except  one.  In  the  act  for  taxing 
the  Isle  of  Man,  the  noble  lord  will  find  (not,  as  in  the 
American  act,  four  or  jive  articles),  but  almost  the 
whole  body  of  British  manufactures  taxed  from  two 
and  a  half  to  fifteen  per  cent,  and  some  articles,  such 
as  that  of  spirits,  a  great  deal  higher.  You  did  not 
think  it  uncommercial  to  tax  the  whole  mass  of  your 
manufactures,  and,  let  me  add,  your  agriculture  too; 
for,  I  now  recollect,  British  corn  is  there  also  taxed 
up  to  ten  per  cent,  and  this  too  in  the  very  headquar 
ters,  the  very  citadel  of  smuggling,  the  Isle  of  Man. 
Now  will  the  noble  lord  condescend  to  tell  me  why  he 
repealed  the  taxes  on  your  manufactures  sent  out  to 
America,  and  not  the  taxes  on  the  manufactures  ex 
ported  to  the  Isle  of  Man  ?  The  principle  was  exactly 
the  same,  the  objects  charged  infinitely  more  extensive, 
the  duties,  without  comparison,  higher.  Why  ?  "Why, 
notwithstanding  all  his  childish  pretexts,  because  the 
taxes  were  quietly  submitted  to  in  the  Isle  of  Man; 
and  because  they  raised  a  flame  in  America.  Your 
reasons  were  political,  not  commercial.  The  repeal 


180          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

was  made,  as  Lord  Hillsborough  's  letter  well  expresses 
it,  to  regain  ''the  confidence  and  affection  of  the  col 
onies,  on  which  the  glory  and  safety  of  the  British 
empire  depend."  A  wise  and  just  motive  surely,  if 
ever  there  was  such.  But  the  mischief  and  dishonor 
is  that  you  have  not  done  what  you  had  given  the  col 
onies  just  cause  to  expect,  when  your  ministers  dis 
claimed  the  idea  of  taxes  for  a  revenue.  There  is  noth 
ing  simple,  nothing  manly,  nothing  ingenuous,  open, 
decisive,  or  steady,  in  the  proceeding,  with  regard 
either  to  the  continuance  or  the  repeal  of  the  taxes. 
The  whole  has  an  air  of  littleness  and  fraud.  The 
article  of  tea  is  slurred  over  in  the  circular  letter,  as 
it  were  by  accident — nothing  is  said  of  a  resolution 
either  to  keep  that  tax  or  to  give  it  up.  There  is  no 
fair  dealing  in  any  part  of  the  transaction. 

If  you  mean  to  follow  your  true  motive  and  your 
public  faith,  give  up  your  tax  on  tea  for  raising  a 
revenue,  the  principle  of  which  has,  in  effect,  been 
disclaimed  in  your  name,  and  which  produces  you  no 
advantage — no,  not  a  penny.  Or,  if  you  choose  to  go 
on  with  a  poor  pretence  instead  of  a  solid  reason,  and 
will  still  adhere  to  your  cant  of  commerce,  you  have 
ten  thousand  times  more  strong  commercial  reasons 
for  giving  up  this  duty  on  tea  than  for  abandoning 
the  five  others  that  you  have  already  renounced. 

The  American  consumption  of  teas  is  annually,  I 
believe,  worth  £300,000  at  the  least  farthing.  If  you 
urge  the  American  violence  as  a  justification  of  your 
perseverance  in  enforcing  this  tax,  you  know  that  you 
can  never  answer  this  plain  question:  Why  did  you 


AMERICAN  TAXATION  181 

repeal  the  others  given  in  the  same  act,  whilst  the  very 
same  violence  subsisted?  But  you  did  not  find  the 
violence  cease  upon  that  concession.  No!  because 
the  concession  was  far  short  of  satisfying  the  princi 
ple  which  Lord  Hillsborough  had  abjured;  or  even 
the  pretence  on  which  the  repeal  of  the  other  taxes 
was  announced;  and  because,  by  enabling  the  East 
India  Company  to  open  a  shop  for  defeating  the  Amer 
ican  resolution  not  to  pay  that  specific  tax,  you  mani 
festly  showed  a  hankering  after  the  principle  of  the 
act  which  you  formerly  had  renounced.  ^Yhatever 
road  you  take  leads  to  a  compliance  with  this  motion. 
It  opens  to  you  at  the  end  of  every  vista.  Your  com 
merce,  your  policy,  your  promises,  your  reasons,  your 
pretences,  your  consistency,  your  inconsistency — all 
jointly  oblige  you  to  this  repeal. 

But  still  it  sticks  in  our  throats, ' '  If  we  go  so  far,  the 
Americans  will  go  farther."  "We  do  not  know  that. 
"We  ought,  from  experience,  rather  to  presume  the  con 
trary.  Do  we  not  know  for  certain  that  the  Americans 
are  going  on  as  fast  as  possible  whilst  we  refuse  to 
gratify  them?  Can  they  do  more,  or  can  they  do 
worse,  if  we  yield  this  point  ?  I  think  this  concession 
will  rather  fix  a  turnpike  to  prevent  their  further 
progress.  It  is  impossible  to  answer  for  bodies  of  men. 
But  I  am  sure  the  natural  effect  of  fidelity,  clemency, 
kindness  in  governors  is  peace,  good-will,  order,  and 
esteem  on  the  part  of  the  governed.  I  would  certainly, 
at  least,  give  these  fair  principles  a  fair  trial,  which, 
since  the  making  of  this  act  to  this  hour,  they  never 
have  had. 


182          BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

[The  following  passage  refers  to  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act  in  1766.] 

Sir,  a  partial  repeal,  or,  as  the  bon  ton  of  the  court 
then  was,  a  modification,  would  have  satisfied  a  timid, 
unsystematic,  procrastinating  ministry,  as  such  a 
measure  has  since  done  such  a  ministry.  A  modifica 
tion  is  the  constant  resource  of  weak,  undeciding 
minds.  To  repeal  by  the  denial  of  our  right  to  tax 
in  the  preamble  (and  this  too  did  not  want  advisers) 
would  have  cut,  in  the  heroic  style,  the  Gordian  knot 
with  a  sword.  Either  measure  would  have  cost  no 
more  than  a  day's  debate.  But  when  the  total  repeal 
was  adopted — and  adopted  on  principles  of  policy,  of 
equity,  and  of  commerce — this  plan  made  it  necessary 
to  enter  into  many  and  difficult  measures. 


I  think  the  inquiry  lasted  in  the  committee  for  six 
weeks;  and,  at  its  conclusion,  this  House,  by  an  in 
dependent,  noble,  spirited,  and  unexpected  majority, 
by  a  majority  that  will  redeem  all  the  acts  ever  done 
by  majorities  in  Parliament,  in  the  teeth  of  all  the 
old  mercenary  Swiss  of  state,  in  despite  of  all  the  spec 
ulators  and  augurs  of  political  events,  in  defiance  of 
the  whole  embattled  legion  of  veteran  pensioners  and 
practiced  instruments  of  a  court,  gave  a  total  repeal  to 
the  stamp  act,  and  (if  it  had  been  so  permitted)  a 
lasting  peace  to  this  whole  empire. 

I  state,  Sir,  these  particulars,  because  this  act  of 
spirit  and  fortitude  has  lately  been,  in  the  circulation 
of  the  season,  and  in  some  hazarded  declamations  in 


AMEKICAN  TAXATION  183 

this  House,  attributed  to  timidity.  If,  Sir,  the  con 
duct  of  ministry,  in  proposing  the  repeal,  had  arisen 
from  timidity  with  regard  to  themselves,  it  would  have 
been  greatly  to  be  condemned.  Interested  timidity 
disgraces  as  much  in  the  cabinet  as  personal  timidity 
does  in  the  field.  But  timidity,  with  regard  to  the 
well-being  of  our  country,  is  heroic  virtue.  The  noble 
lord1  who  then  conducted  affairs,  and  his  worthy  col 
leagues,  whilst  they  trembled  at  the  prospect  of  such 
distresses  as  you  have  since  brought  upon  yourselves, 
were  not  afraid  steadily  to  look  in  the  face  that  glar 
ing  and  dazzling  influence  at  which  the  eyes  of  eagles 
have  blenched.  He  looked  in  the  face  one  of  the  ablest, 
and,  let  me  say,  not  the  most  scrupulous,  oppositions 
that  perhaps  ever  was  in  this  House ;  and  withstood  it, 
unaided  by  even  one  of  the  usual  supports  of  adminis 
tration.  He  did  this  when  he  repealed  the  stamp  act. 
He  looked  in  the  face  of  a  person  he  had  long  respected 
and  regarded,  and  whose  aid  was  then  particularly 
wanting;  I  mean  Lord  Chatham.  He  did  this  when 
he  passed  the  declaratory  act. 


Everything,  upon  every  side,  was  full  of  traps  and 
mines.  Earth  below  shook;  heaven  above  menaced; 
all  the  elements  of  ministerial  safety  were  dissolved. 
It  was  in  the  midst  of  this  chaos  of  plots  and  counter 
plots  ;  it  was  in  the  midst  of  this  complicated  warfare 
against  public  opposition  and  private  treachery,  that 
the  firmness  of  that  noble  person  was  put  to  the  proof. 

1  Rockingham. 


184          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

He  never  stirred  from  his  ground — no,  not  an  inch. 
He  remained  fixed  and  determined,  in  principle,  in 
measure,  and  in  conduct.  He  practiced  no  manage 
ments.  He  secured  no  retreat.  He  sought  no  apol 
ogy. 

I  will  likewise  do  justice — I  ought  to  do  it — to  the 
honorable  gentleman  who  led  us  in  this  House.  Far 
from  the  duplicity  wickedly  charged  on  him,  he  acted 
his  part  with  alacrity  and  resolution.  We  all  felt 
inspired  by  the  example  he  gave  us,  down  even  to  my 
self,  the  weakest  in  that  phalanx.  I  declare,  for  one, 
I  knew  well  enough  (it  could  not  be  concealed  from 
anybody)  the  true  state  of  things;  but  in  my  life  I 
never  came  with  so  much  spirits  into  this  House.  It 
was  a  time  for  a  man  to  act  in.  We  had  powerful 
enemies,  but  we  had  faithful  and  determined  friends 
and  a  glorious  cause.  We  had  a  great  battle  to  fight, 
but  we  had  the  means  of  fighting — not  as  now,  when 
our  arms  are  tied  behind  us.  We  did  fight  that  day, 
and  conquer. 

I  remember,  Sir,  with  a  melancholy  pleasure,  the 
situation  of  the  honorable  gentleman  who  made  the 
motion  for  the  repeal ;  in  that  crisis,  when  the  whole 
trading  interest  of  this  empire,  crammed  into  your 
lobbies,  with  a  trembling  and  anxious  expectation, 
waited,  almost  to  a  winter 's  return  of  light,  their  fate 
from  your  resolutions.  When,  at  length,  you  had  de 
termined  in  their  favor,  and  your  doors,  thrown  open, 
showed  them  the  figure  of  their  deliverer  in  the  well- 
earned  triumph  of  his  important  victory,  from  the 
whole  of  that  grave  multitude  there  arose  an  invol- 


AMERICAN  TAXATION  185 

untary  burst  of  gratitude  and  transport.  They 
jumped  upon  him  like  children  on  a  long  absent  father. 
They  clung  about  him  as  captives  about  their  re 
deemer.  All  England,  all  America,  joined  to  his  ap 
plause.  Nor  did  he  seem  insensible  to  the  best  of  all 
earthly  rewards,  the  love  and  admiration  of  his  fellow- 
citizens.  Hope  elevated  and  joy  brightened  his  crest. 
I  stood  near  him;  and  his  face,  to  use  the  expression 
of  the  Scripture  of  the  first  martyr,  "his  face  was  as 
if  it  had  been  the  face  of  an  angel."  I  do  not  know 
how  others  feel ;  but  if  I  had  stood  in  that  situation,  I 
never  would  have  exchanged  it  for  all  that  kings  in 
their  profusion  could  bestow.  I  did  hope  that  that 
day's  danger  and  honor  would  have  been  a  bond  to 
hold  us  all  together  forever.  But,  alas!  that,  with 
other  pleasing  visions,  is  long  since  vanished. 

Sir,  this  act  of  supreme  magnanimity  has  been  rep 
resented  as  if  it  had  been  a  measure  of  an  administra 
tion,  that  having  no  scheme  of  their  own,  took  a  middle 
line,  pilfered  a  bit  from  one  side  and  a  bit  from  the 
other.  Sir,  they  took  no  middle  lines.  They  differed 
fundamentally  from  the  schemes  of  both  parties ;  but 
they  preserved  the  objects  of  both.  They  preserved 
the  authority  of  Great  Britain.  They  preserved  the 
equity  of  Great  Britain.  They  made  the  declaratory 
act ;  they  repealed  the  stamp  act.  They  did  both  fully; 
because  the  declaratory  act  was  without  qualification; 
and  the  repeal  of  the  stamp  act  total.  This  they  did  in 
the  situation  I  have  described. 

Now,  Sir,  what  will  the  adversary  say  to  both  these 
acts?  If  the  principle  of  the  declaratory  act  was  not 


186          BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

good,  the  principle  we  are  contending  for  this  day  is 
monstrous.  If  the  principle  of  the  repeal  was  not 
good,  why  are  we  not  at  war  for  a  real,  substantial, 
effective  revenue?  If  both  were  bad,  why  has  this 
ministry  incurred  all  the  inconveniences  of  both  and  of 
all  schemes?  Why  have  they  enacted,  repealed,  en 
forced,  yielded,  and  now  attempt  to  enforce  again  ? 


Sir,  the  agents  and  distributors  of  falsehoods  have, 
with  their  usual  industry,  circulated  another  lie  of  the 
same  nature  with  the  former.  It  is  this,  that  the  dis 
turbances  arose  from  the  account  which  had  been  re 
ceived  in  America  of  the  change  in  the  ministry.  No 
longer  awed,  it  seems,  with  the  spirit  of  the  former 
rulers,  they  thought  themselves  a  match  for  what  our 
calumniators  chose  to  qualify  by  the  name  of  so  feeble 
a  ministry  as  succeeded.  Feeble  in  one  sense  these 
men  certainly  may  be  called;  for,  with  all  their  ef 
forts — and  they  have  made  many — they  have  not  been 
able  to  resist  the  distempered  vigor,  and  insane  alac 
rity,  with  which  you  are  rushing  to  your  ruin.  But  it 
does  so  happen  that  the  falsity  of  this  circulation  is, 
like  the  rest,  demonstrated  by  indisputable  dates  and 
records. 

So  little  was  the  change  known  in  America  that  the 
letters  of  your  governors,  giving  an  account  of  these 
disturbances  long  after  they  had  arrived  at  their  high 
est  pitch,  were  all  directed  to  the  old  ministry,  and 
particularly  to  the  Earl  of  Halifax,  the  secretary  of 
state  corresponding  with  the  colonies,  without  once 


AMERICAN  TAXATION  187 

in  :he  smallest  degree  intimating  the  slightest  sus 
picion  of  any  ministerial  revolution  whatsoever.  The 
ministry  was  not  changed  in  England  until  the  10th 
day  of  July,  1765.  On  the  14th  of  the  preceding  June, 
Governor  Fauquier  from  Virginia  writes  thus,  and 
writes  thus  to  the  Earl  of  Halifax : ' '  Government  is  set 
at  defiance,  not  having  strength  enough  in  her  hands 
to  enforce  obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  community. 
The  private  distress  which  every  man  feels,  increases 
the  general  dissatisfaction,  at  the  duties  laid  by  the 
stamp  act,  which  breaks  out  and  shows  itself  upon 
every  trifling  occasion."  The  general  dissatisfaction 
had  produced  some  time  before — that  is,  on  the  29th 
of  May — several  strong  public  resolves  against  the 
stamp  act ;  and  those  resolves  are  assigned  by  Governor 
Bernard  as  the  cause  of  the  insurrections  in  Massa 
chusetts  Bay,  in  his  letter  of  the  15th  of  August,  still 
addressed  to  the  Earl  of  Halifax;  and  he  continued  to 
address  such  accounts  to  that  minister  quite  to  the  7th 
of  September  of  the  same  year.  Similar  accounts,  and 
of  as  late  a  date,  were  sent  from  other  governors,  and 
all  directed  to  Lord  Halifax.  Not  one  of  these  letters 
indicates  the  slightest  idea  of  a  change,  either  known, 
or  even  apprehended. 

Thus  are  blown  away  the  insect  race  of  courtly  false 
hoods!  thus  perish  the  miserable  inventions  of  the 
wretched  runners  for  a  wretched  cause,  which  they 
have  fly-blown  into  every  weak  and  rotten  part  of  the 
country,  in  vain  hopes  that  when  their  maggots  had 
taken  wing,  their  importunate  buzzing  might  sound 
something  like  the  public  voice! 


188          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION- 

Sir,  I  have  troubled  you  sufficiently  with  the  state  of 
America  before  the  repeal.  Now  I  turn  to  the  hon 
orable  gentleman  who  so  stoutly  challenges  us  to  tell, 
whether,  after  the  repeal,  the  provinces  were  quiet? 
This  is  coming  home  to  the  point.  Here  I  meet  him 
directly;  and  answer  most  readily,  They  were  quiet. 
And  I,  in  my  turn,  challenge  him  to  prove  when,  and 
where,  and  by  wrhom,  and  in  what  numbers,  and  with 
what  violence,  the  other  laws  of  trade,  as  gentlemen 
assert,  were  violated  in  consequence  of  your  conces 
sion?  or  that  even  your  other  revenue  laws  were  at 
tacked?  But  I  quit  the  vantage-ground  on  which  I 
stand,  and  where  I  might  leave  the  burthen  of  the 
proof  upon  him ;  I  walk  down  upon  the  open  plain,  and 
undertake  to  show  that  they  were  not  only  quiet,  but 
showed  many  unequivocal  marks  of  acknowledgment 
and  gratitude.  And  to  give  him  every  advantage,  I 
select  the  obnoxious  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
which  at  this  time  (but  without  hearing  her)  is  so  heav 
ily  a  culprit  before  Parliament — I  will  select  their  pro 
ceedings  even  under  circumstances  of  no  small  irrita 
tion.  For,  a  little  imprudently,  I  must  say,  Governor 
Bernard  mixed  in  the  administration  of  the  lenitive 
of  the  repeal  no  small  acrimony  arising  from  matters 
of  a  separate  nature.  Yet  see,  Sir,  the  effect  of  that 
lenitive,  though  mixed  with  these  bitter  ingredients; 
and  how  this  rugged  people  can  express  themselves 
on  a  measure  of  concession. 

"If  it  is  not  in  our  power"  (say  they  in  their  ad 
dress  to  Governor  Bernard)  "in  so  full  a  manner  as 
will  be  expected  to  show  our  respectful  gratitude  to 


AMERICAX  TAXATION  189 

the  mother  country,  or  to  make  a  dutiful  and  affection 
ate  return  to  the  indulgence  of  the  king  and  Parlia 
ment,  it  shall  be  no  fault  of  ours ;  for  this  we  intend, 
and  hope  we  shall  be  able  fully  to  effect. " 

Would  to  God  that  this  temper  had  been  cultivated, 
managed,  and  set  In  action !  Other  effects  than  those 

which  we  have  since  felt  would  have  resulted  from  it. 

******* 

Let  us,  Sir,  embrace  some  system  or  other  before  we 
end  this  session.  Do  you  mean  to  tax  America,  and 
to  draw  a  productive  revenue  from  thence  ?  If  you  do, 
speak  out ;  name,  fix,  ascertain  this  revenue ;  settle  its 
quantity ;  define  its  objects ;  provide  for  its  collection ; 
and  then  fight  when  you  have  something  to  fight  for. 
If  you  murder,  rob ;  if  you  kill,  tal^e  possession :  and 
do  not  appear  in  the  character  of  madmen,  as  well  as 
assassins — violent,  vindictive,  bloody,  and  tyrannical, 
without  an  object.  But  may  better  counsels  guide 
you! 

Again  and  again  revert  to  your  own  principles ;  seek 
peace  and  ensue  it ;  leave  America,  if  she  has  taxable 
matter  in  her,  to  tax  herself.  I  am  not  here  going  into 
the  distinctions  of  rights,  not  attempting  to  mark  their 
boundaries.  I  do  not  enter  into  these  metaphysical 
distinctions;  I  hate  the  very  sound  of  them.  Leave 
the  Americans  as  they  anciently  stood,  and  these  dis 
tinctions,  born  of  our  unhappy  contest,  will  die  along 
with  it.  They  and  we,  and  their  and  our  ancestors, 
have  been  happy  under  that  system.  Let  the  memory 
of  all  actions,  in  contradiction  to  that  good  old  mode, 
on  both  sides  be  extinguished  forever.  Be  content  to 


190  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

bind  America  by  laws  of  trade ;  you  have  always  done 
it.  Let  this  be  your  reason  for  binding  their  trade. 
Do  not  burthen  them  by  taxes ;  you  were  not  used  to 
do  so  from  the  beginning.  Let  this  be  your  reason  for 
not  taxing.  These  are  the  arguments  of  states  and 
kingdoms.  Leave  the  rest  to  the  schools ;  for  there 
only  they  may  be  discussed  with  safety.  But  if  in- 
temperately,  unwisely,  fatally,  you  sophisticate  and 
poison  the  very  source  of  government,  by  urging  subtle 
deductions  and  consequences  odious  to  those  you  gov 
ern,  from  the  unlimited  and  illimitable  nature  of  su 
preme  sovereignty  you  will  teach  them  by  these  means 
to  call  that  sovereignty  itself  in  question.  When  you 
drive  him  hard,  the  boar  will  surely  turn  upon  the 
hunters.  If  that  sovereignty  and  their  freedom  cannot 
be  reconciled,  which  will  they  take?  They  will  cast 
your  sovereignty  in  your  face.  Nobody  will  be  argued 
into  slavery.  Sir,  let  the  gentlemen  on  the  other  side 
call  forth  all  their  ability;  let  the  best  of  them  get 
up  and  tell  me  what  one  character  of  liberty  the  Amer 
icans  have,  and  what  one  brand  of  slavery  they  are 
free  from,  if  they  are  bound  in  their  property  and 
industry  by  all  the  restraints  you  can  imagine  on  com 
merce,  and  at  the  same  time  are  made  pack-horses  of 
every  tax  you  choose  to  impose,  without  the  least  share 
in  granting  them.  When  they  bear  the  burthens  of 
unlimited  monopoly,  will  you  bring  them  to  bear  the 
burthens  of  unlimited  revenue  too  ?  The  Englishman 
in  America  will  feel  that  this  is  slavery — that  it  is  legal 
slavery,  will  be  no  compensation,  either  to  his  feelings 
or  his  understanding. 


AMERICAN  TAXATION  191 

If  this  be  the  case,  ask  yourselves  this  question :  Will 
they  be  content  in  such  a  state  of  slavery?  If  not, 
look  to  the  consequences.  Reflect  how  you  are  to  gov 
ern  a  people  who  thkik  they  ought  to  be  free,  and 
think  they  are  not.  Your  scheme  yields  no  revenue ; 
it  yields  nothing  but  discontent,  disorder,  disobedi 
ence  ;  and  such  is  the  state  of  America  that  after  wad 
ing  up  to  your  eyes  in  blood,  you  could  only  end  just 
where  you  begun — that  is,  to  tax  where  no  revenue  is 

to  be  found,  to my  voice  fails  me ;  my  inclination 

indeed  carries  me  no  farther — all  is  confusion  beyond 

it. 

******     * 

I  charge  therefore  to  this  new  and  unfortunate  sys 
tem  the  loss  not  only  of  peace,  of  union,  and  of  com 
merce,  but  even  of  revenue,  which  its  friends  are  con 
tending  for.  It  is  morally  certain  that  we  have  lost 
at  least  a  million  of  free  grants  since  the  peace.  I 
think  we  have  lost  a  great  deal  more  and  that  those 
who  look  for  a  revenue  from  the  provinces  never  could 
have  pursued,  even  in  that  light,  a  course  more  directly 
repugnant  to  their  purposes. 

Now,  Sir,  I  trust  I  have  shown,  first  on  that  narrow 
ground  which  the  honorable  gentleman  measured,  that 
you  are  likely  to  lose  nothing  by  complying  with  the 
motion,  except  what  you  have  lost  already.  I  have 
shown  afterward  that  in  time  of  peace  you  flourished 
in  commerce  and,  when  war  required  it,  had  sufficient 
aid  from  the  colonies  while  you  pursued  your  ancient 
policy ;  that  you  threw  everything  into  confusion  when 
you  made  the  stamp  act ;  and  that  you  restored  every- 


192          BURKE '3  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

thing  to  peace  and  order  when  you  repealed  it.  I 
have  shown  that  the  revival  of  the  system  of  taxation 
has  produced  the  very  worst  effects ;  and  that  the  par 
tial  repeal  has  produced,  not  partial  good,  but  uni 
versal  evil.  Let  these  considerations,  founded  on 
facts,  not  one  of  which  can  be  denied,  bring  us  back 
to  our  reason  by  the  road  of  our  experience. 

I  cannot,  as  I  have  said,  answer  for  mixed  measures ; 
but  surely  this  mixture  of  lenity  would  give  the  whole 
a  better  chance  of  success.  When  you  once  regain 
confidence,  the  way  will  be  clear  before  you.  Then  you 
may  enforce  the  act  of  navigation  when  it  ought  to  be 
enforced.  You  will  yourselves  open  it  where  it  ought 
still  further  to  be  opened.  Proceed  in  what  you  do, 
whatever  you  do,  from  policy,  and  not  from  rancor. 
Let  us  act  like  men ;  let  us  act  like  statesmen.  Let  us 
hold  some  sort  of  consistent  conduct.  It  is  agreed  that 
a  revenue  is  not  to  be  had  in  America.  If  we  lose  the 
profit,  let  us  get  rid  of  the  odium. 

On  this  business  of  America  I  confess  I  am  serious 
even  to  sadness.  I  have  had  but  one  opinion  concern 
ing  it  since  I  sat,  and  before  I  sat,  in  Parliament.  The 
noble  lord1  will,  as  usual,  probably  attribute  the  part 
taken  by  me  and  my  friends  in  this  business  to  a  desire 
of  getting  his  places.  Let  him  enjoy  this  happy  and 
original  idea.  If  I  deprived  him  of  it,  I  should  take 
away  most  of  his  wit,  and  all  his  argument.  But  I 
had  rather  bear  the  brunt  of  all  his  wit,  and  indeed 
blows  much  heavier,  than  stand  answerable  to  God 
for  embracing  a  system  that  tends  to  the  destruction 

1.     Lord  North. 


LETTER  TO  THE  SHERIFFS  OF  BRISTOL       193 

of  some  of  the  very  best  and  fairest  of  his  works.  But 
I  know  the  map  of  England,  as  well  as  the  noble  lord, 
or  as  any  other  person,  and  I  know  that  the  way  I  take 
is  not  the  road  to  preferment.  My  excellent  and  hon 
orable  friend  under  me  on  the  floor  has  trod  that  road 
with  great  toil  for  upwards  of  twenty  years  together. 
He  is  not  yet  arrived  at  the  noble  lord's  destination. 
However,  the  tracks  of  my  worthy  friend  are  those 
I  have  ever  wished  to  follow ;  because  I  know  they  lead 
to  honor.  Long  may  we  tread  the  same  road  together ; 
whoever  may  accompany  us,  or  whoever  may  laugh  at 
us  on  our  journey !  I  honestly  and  solemnly  declare 
I  have  in  all  seasons  adhered  to  the  system  of  1766,  for 
no  other  reason  than  that  I  think  it  laid  deep  in  your 
truest  interest,  and  that  by  limiting  the  exercise  it 
fixes,  on  the  firmest  foundations,  a  real,  consistent,  well- 
grounded  authority  in  parliament.  Until  you  come 
back  to  that  system,  there  will  be  no  peace  for  Eng 
land. 

THE  LETTER  TO  THE  SHERIFFS  OF  BRISTOL  ON  THE 
AFFAIRS   OF   AMERICA,   WRITTEN   APRIL   3,    1777 

GENTLEMEN  :  I  have  the  honor  of  sending  you  the 
two  last  acts  which  have  been  passed  with  regard  to 
the  troubles  in  America.  These  acts  are  similar  to 
all  the  rest  which  have  been  made  on  the  same  subject. 
They  operate  by  the  same  principle,  and  they  are 
derived  from  the  very  same  policy.  I  think  they  com 
plete  the  number  of  this  sort  of  statutes  to  nine.  It 
affords  no  matter  for  very  pleasing  reflection  to  ob 
serve  that  our  subjects  diminish  as  our  laws  increase. 


194  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

If  I  have  the  misfortune  of  differing  with  some  of 
my  fellow-citizens  on  this  great  and  arduous  subject, 
it  is  no  small  consolation  to  me  that  I  do  not  differ 
from  you.  With  you  I  am  perfectly  united.  We  are 
heartily  agreed  in  our  detestation  of  a  civil  war.  We 
have  ever  expressed  the  most  unqualified  disapproba 
tion  of  all  the  steps  which  have  led  to  it,  and  of  all 
those  which  tend  to  prolong  it.  And  I  have  no  doubt 
that  we  feel  exactly  the  same  emotions  of  grief  and 
shame  in  all  its  miserable  consequences ;  whether  they 
appear,  on  the  one  side  or  the  other,  in  the  shape  of 
victories  or  defeats,  or  captures  made  from  the  English 
on  the  continent,  or  from  the  English  in  these  islands, 
of  legislative  regulations  which  subvert  the  liberties 

of  our  brethren,  or  which  undermine  our  own. 
******* 

That  you  may  be  enabled  to  enter  into  the  true  spirit 
of  the  present  law,  it  is  necessary,  gentlemen,  to  ap 
prize  you  that  there  is  an  act,  made  so  long  ago  as  in 
the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  before  the  existence  or 
thought  of  any  English  colonies  in  America,  for  the 
trial  in  this  kingdom  of  treasons  committed  out  of  the 
realm.  In  the  year  1769  Parliament  thought  proper 
to  acquaint  the  crown  with  their  construction  of  that 
act  in  a  formal  address,  wherein  they  entreated  his 
Majesty  to  cause  persons  charged  with  high  treason  in 
America,  to  be  brought  into  this  kingdom  for  trial. 
By  this  act  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  so  construed  and  so 
applied,  almost  all  that  is  substantial  and  beneficial 
in  a  trial  by  a  jury  is  taken  away  from  the  subject  in 
the  colonies.  This  is  however  saying  too  little ;  for  to 


LETTER  TO  THE  SHERIFFS  OF  BRISTOL       195 

try  a  man  under  that  act  is,  in  effect,  to  condemn  him 
unheard.  A  person  is  brought  hither  in  the  dungeon 
of  a  ship 's  hold ;  thence  he  is  vomited  into  a  dungeon 
on  land ;  loaded  with  irons,  unfurnished  with  money, 
unsupported  by  friends,  three  thousand  miles  from  all 
means  of  calling  upon  or  confronting  evidence,  where 
no  one  local  circumstance  that  tends  to  detect  perjury 
can  possibly  be  judged  of.  Such  a  person  may  be 
executed  according  to  form,  but  he  can  never  be  tried 
according  to  justice. 

I  therefore  could  never  reconcile  myself  to  the  bill 
I  send  you,  which  is  expressly  provided  to  remove  all 
inconveniences  from  the  establishment  of  a  mode  of 
trial  which  has  ever  appeared  to  me  most  unjust  and 
most  unconstitutional.  Far  from  removing  the  diffi 
culties  which  impede  the  execution  of  so  mischievous 
a  project,  I  would  heap  new  difficulties  upon  it,  if  it 
were  in  my  power.  All  the  ancient,  honest,  juridical 
principles  and  institutions  of  England  are  so  many 
clogs  to  check  and  retard  the  headlong  course  of  vio 
lence  and  oppression.  They  were  invented  for  this  one 
good  purpose,  that  what  was  not  just  should  not  be 
convenient.  Convinced  of  this,  I  would  leave  things 
as  I  found  them.  The  old,  cool-headed,  general  law 

is  as  good  as  any  deviation  dictated  by  present  heat. 
•    •**•*• 

I  take  it  for  granted,  gentlemen,  that  we  sympathize 
in  a  proper  horror  of  all  punishment  further  than  as 
it  serves  for  an  example.  To  whom  then  does  the 
example  of  an  execution  in  England  for  this  American 
rebellion  apply?  Remember  you  are  told  every  day 


196  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

that  the  present  is  a  contest  between  the  two  coun 
tries,  and  that  we  in  England  are  at  war  for  our  own 
dignity  against  our  rebellious  children.  Is  this  true  ? 
If  it  be,  it  is  surely  among  such  rebellious  children 
that  examples  for  disobedience  should  be  made,  to  be 
in  any  degree  instructive;  for  who  ever  thought  of 
teaching  parents  their  duty  by  an  example  from  the 
punishment  of  an  undutiful  son?  As  well  might  the 
execution  of  a  fugitive  negro  in  the  plantations  be 
considered  as  a  lesson  to  teach  masters  humanity  to 
their  slaves.  Such  executions  may  indeed  satiate  our 
revenge ;  they  may  harden  our  hearts,  and  puff  us  up 
with  pride  and  arrogance.  Alas !  this  is  not  instruc 
tion! 

If  anything  can  be  drawn  from  such  examples  by  a 
parity  of  the  case,  it  is  to  show  how  deep  their  crime 
and  how  heavy  their  punishment  will  be  who  shall  at 
any  time  dare  to  resist  a  distant  power  actually  dis 
posing  of  their  property,  without  their  voice  or  consent 
to  the  disposition,  and  overturning  their  franchises 
without  charge  or  hearing.  God  forbid  that  England 
should  ever  read  this  lesson  written  in  the  blood  of 
any  of  her  offspring ! 

War  is  at  present  carried  on  between  the  king's 
natural  and  foreign  troops  on  one  side,  and  the  Eng 
lish  in  America  on  the  other,  upon  the  usual  footing 
of  other  wars;  and  accordingly  an  exchange  of  pris 
oners  has  been  regularly  made  from  the  beginning.  If 
notwithstanding  this  hitherto  equal  procedure,  upon 
some  prospect  of  ending  the  war  with  success  (which 
however  may  be  delusive),  administration  prepares 


LETTER  TO  THE  SHERIFFS  OF  BRISTOL       197 

to  act  against  those  as  traitors  who  remain  in  their 
hands  at  the  end  of  the  troubles,  in  my  opinion  we 
shall  exhibit  to  the  world  as  indecent  a  piece  of  in 
justice  as  ever  civil  fury  has  produced.  If  the  prisoners 
who  have  been  exchanged  have  not  by  that  exchange 
been  virtually  pardoned,  the  cartel  (whether  avowed 
or  understood)  is  a  cruel  fraud ;  for  you  have  received 
the  life  of  a  man,  and  you  ought  to  return  a  life  for  it, 
or  there  is  no  parity  of  fairness  in  the  transaction. 


The  act  of  which  I  speak  is  among  the  fruits  of  the 
American  war ;  a  war  in  my  humble  opinion  productive 
of  many  mischiefs,  of  a  kind  which  distinguish  it  from 
all  others.  Not  only  our  policy  is  deranged,  and  our 
empire  distracted,  but  our  laws  and  our  legislative 
spirit  appear  to  have  been  totally  perverted  by  it.  We 
have  made  war  on  our  colonies,  not  by  arms  only,  but 
by  laws.  As  hostility  and  law  are  not  very  concordant 
ideas,  every  step  we  have  taken  in  this  business  has 
been  made  by  trampling  on  some  maxim  of  justice,  or 
some  capital  principle  of  wise  government.  What  prec 
edents  were  established  and  what  principles  over 
turned — I  will  not  say  of  English  privilege,  but  of  gen 
eral  justice — in  the  Boston  Port,  the  Massachusetts 
Charter,  the  Military  Bill,  and  all  that  long  array  of 
hostile  acts  of  Parliament  by  which  the  war  with  Amer 
ica  has  been  begun  and  supported !  Had  the  principles 
of  any  of  these  acts  been  first  exerted  on  English 
ground,  they  would  probably  have  expired  as  soon  as 
they  touched  it.  But  by  being  removed  from  our  per- 


198  BUEKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

sons  they  have  rooted  in  our  laws,  and  the  latest  pos 
terity  will  taste  the  fruits  of  them. 

Nor  is  it  the  worst  effect  of  this  unnatural  contention, 
that  our  laws  are  corrupted.  Whilst  manners  remain 
entire,  they  will  correct  the  vices  of  law,  and  soften  it 
at  length  to  their  own  temper.  But  we  have  to  lament 
that  in  most  of  the  late  proceedings  we  see  very  few 
traces  of  that  generosity,  humanity,  and  dignity  of 
mind  which  formerly  characterized  this  nation.  War 
suspends  the  rules  of  moral  obligation,  and  what  is  long 
suspended  is  in  danger  of  being  totally  abrogated. 
Civil  wars  strike  deepest  of  all  into  the  manners  of  the 
people.  They  vitiate  their  politics ;  they  corrupt  their 
morals ;  they  pervert  even  the  natural  taste  and  relish 
of  equity  and  justice.  By  teaching  us  to  consider  our 
fellow-citizens  in  a  hostile  light  the  whole  body  of  our 
nation  becomes  gradually  less  dear  to  us.  The  very 
names  of  affection  and  kindred,  which  were  the  bond 
of  charity  whilst  we  agreed,  become  new  incentives 
to  hatred  and  rage  when  the  communion  of  our  coun 
try  is  dissolved.  We  may  flatter  ourselves  that  we 
shall  not  fall  into  this  misfortune.  But  we  have  no 
charter  of  exemption,  that  I  know  of,  from  the  ordi 
nary  frailties  of  our  nature. 

What  but  that  blindness  of  heart  which  arises  from 
the  frenzy  of  civil  contention,  could  have  made  any 
persons  conceive  the  present  situation  of  the  British 
affairs  as  an  object  of  triumph  to  themselves,  or  of  con 
gratulation  to  their  sovereign?  Nothing  surely  could 
be  more  lamentable  to  those  who  remember  the  flour 
ishing  days  of  this  kingdom  than  to  see  the  insane  joy 


LETTER  TO  THE  SHERIFFS  OF  BRISTOL       199 

of  several  unhappy  people,  amidst  the  sad  spectacle 
which  our  affairs  and  conduct  exhibit  to  the  scorn  of 
Europe.  We  behold  (and  it  seems  some  people  rejoice 
in  beholding)  our  native  land,  which  used  to  sit  the 
envied  arbiter  of  all  her  neighbors,  reduced  to  a 
servile  dependence  on  their  mercy,  acquiescing  in  as 
surances  of  friendship  which  she  does  not  trust,  com 
plaining  of  hostilities  which  she  dares  not  resent,  defi 
cient  to  her  allies,  lofty  to  her  subjects  and  submissive 
to  her  enemies,  whilst  the  liberal  government  of  this 
free  nation  is  supported  by  the  hireling  sword  of  Ger 
man  boors  and  vassals,  and  three  millions  of  the  sub 
jects  of  Great  Britain  are  seeking  for  protection  to 
English  privileges  in  the  arms  of  France ! 

These  circumstances  appear  to  me  more  like  shock 
ing  prodigies  than  natural  changes  in  human  affairs. 
Men  of  firmer  minds  may  see  them  without  staggering 
or  astonishment.  Some  may  think  them  matters  of  con 
gratulation  and  complimentary  addresses ;  but  I  trust 
your  candor  will  be  so  indulgent  to  my  weakness,  as 
not  to  have  the  worse  opinion  of  me  for  my  declin 
ing  to  participate  in  this  joy,  and  my  rejecting  all 
share  whatsoever  in  such  a  triumph.  I  am  too  old,  too 
stiff  in  my  inveterate  partialities,  to  be  ready  at  all 
the  fashionable  evolutions  of  opinion.  I  scarcely  know 
how  to  adapt  my  mind  to  the  feelings  with  which  the 
court  gazettes  mean  to  impress  the  people.  It  is  not 
instantly  that  I  can  be  brought  to  rejoice  when  I  hear 
of  the  slaughter  and  captivity  of  long  lists  of  those 
names  which  have  been  familiar  to  my  ears  from  my 
infancy,  and  to  rejoice  that  they  have  fallen  under  the 


200  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

sword  of  strangers  whose  barbarous  appellations  I 
scarcely  know  how  to  pronounce.  The  glory  acquired 
at  the  White  Plains  by  Colonel  Raille  has  no  charms 
for  me ;  and  I  fairly  acknowledge  that  I  have  not  yet 
learned  to  delight  in  finding  Fort  Kniphausen  in  the 
heart  of  the  British  dominions. 

It  might  be  some  consolation  for  the  loss  of  our  old 
regards  if  our  reason  were  enlightened  in  proportion 
as  our  honest  prejudices  are  removed.  Wanting  feel 
ings  for  the  honor  of  our  country,  we  might  then  in 
cold  blood  be  brought  to  think  a  little  of  our  interests 
as  individual  citizens,  and  our  private  conscience  as 
moral  agents. 

Indeed  our  affairs  are  in  a  bad  condition.  I  do  assure 
those  gentlemen  wrho  have  prayed  for  war,  and  have 
obtained  the  blessing  they  have  sought,  that  they  are 
at  this  instant  in  very  great  straits.  The  abused  wealth 
of  this  country  continues  a  little  longer  to  feel  its  dis 
temper.  As  yet  they,  and  their  German  allies  of  twenty 
hireling  states,  have  contended  only  with  the  unpre 
pared  strength  of  our  own  infant  colonies.  But  Amer 
ica  is  not  subdued.  Not  one  unattacked  village  which 
was  originally  adverse  throughout  that  vast  continent 
has  yet  submitted  from  love  or  terror.  You  have  the 
ground  you  encamp  on,  and  you  have  no  more.  The 
cantonments  of  your  troops  and  your  dominions  are 
exactly  of  the  same  extent.  You  spread  devastation, 
but  you  do  not  enlarge  the  sphere  of  authority. 

The  events  of  this  war  are  of  so  much  greater  mag 
nitude  than  those  who  either  wished  or  feared  it  ever 
looked  for  that  this  alone  ought  to  fill  every  consid- 


LETTER  TO  THE  SHERIFFS  OF  BRISTOL       201 

erate  mind  with  anxiety  and  diffidence.  Wise  men 
often  tremble  at  the  very  things  which  fill  the  thought 
less  with  security.  For  many  reasons  I  do  not  choose 
to  expose  to  public  view  all  the  particulars  of  the  state 
in  which  you  stood  with  regard  to  foreign  powers  dur 
ing  the  whole  course  of  the  last  year.  Whether  you  are 
yet  wholly  out  of  danger  from  them  is  more  than  I 
know,  or  than  your  rulers  can  divine.  But  even  if  I 
were  certain  of  my  safety,  I  could  not  easily  forgive 
those  who  had  brought  me  into  the  most  dreadful  perils, 
because  by  accidents,  unforeseen  by  them  or  me,  I  have 
escaped. 

Believe  me,  gentlemen,  the  way  still  before  you  is 
intricate,  dark,  and  full  of  perplexed  and  treacher 
ous  mazes.  Those  who  think  they  have  the  clue  may 
lead  us  out  of  this  labyrinth.  We  may  trust  them  as 
amply  as  we  think  proper ;  but  as  they  have  most  cer 
tainly  a  call  for  all  the  reason  which  their  stock  can 
furnish,  why  should  we  think  it  proper  to  disturb 
its  operation  by  inflaming  their  passions?  I  may  be 
unable  to  lend  an  helping  hand  to  those  who  direct  the 
state,  but  I  should  be  ashamed  to  make  myself  one  of 
a  noisy  multitude  to  halloo  and  hearten  them  into 
doubtful  and  dangerous  courses.  A  conscientious  man 
would  be  cautious  how  he  dealt  in  blood.  He  would  feel 
some  apprehension  at  being  called  to  a  tremendous 
account  for  engaging  in  so  deep  a  play,  without  any 
sort  of  knowledge  of  the  game.  It  is  no  excuse  for 
presumptuous  ignorance  that  it  is  directed  by  insolent 
passion.  The  poorest  being  that  crawls  on  earth,  con 
tending  to  save  itself  from  injustice  and  oppression, 


202  BUEKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

is  an  object  respectable  in  the  eyes  of  God  and  man. 
But  I  cannot  conceive  any  existence  under  heaven 
(which,  in  the  depths  of  its  wisdom,  tolerates  all  sorts 
of  things)  that  is  more  truly  odious  and  disgusting, 
than  an  impotent,  helpless  creature,  without  civil  wis 
dom  or  military  skill,  without  a  consciousness  of  any 
other  qualification  for  power  but  his  servility  to  it, 
bloated  with  pride  and  arrogance,  calling  for  battles 
which  he  is  not  to  fight,  contending  for  a  violent  do 
minion  which  he  can  never  exercise,  and  satisfied  to 
be  himself  mean  and  miserable,  in  order  to  render 
others  contemptible  and  wretched. 

If  you  and  I  find  our  talents  not  of  the  great  and 
ruling  kind,  our  conduct  at  least  is  conformable  to  our 
faculties.  No  man's  life  pays  the  forfeit  of  our  rash 
ness.  No  desolate  widow  weeps  tears  of  blood  over  our 
ignorance.  Scrupulous  and  sober  in  our  well-grounded 
distrust  of  ourselves,  we  would  keep  in  the  port  of 
peace  and  security ;  and  perhaps  in  recommending  to 
others  something  of  the  same  diffidence  we  should  show 
ourselves  more  charitable  in  their  welfare  than  injuri 
ous  to  their  abilities. 

There  are  many  circumstances  in  the  zeal  shown  for 
civil  war  which  seem  to  discover  but  little  of  real  mag 
nanimity.  The  addressers  offer  their  own  persons,  and 
they  are  satisfied  with  hiring  Germans.  They  promise 
their  private  fortunes,  and  they  mortgage  their  coun- 
,  try.  They  have  all  the  merit  of  volunteers,  without 
risk  of  person  or  charge  of  contribution ;  and  when  the 
unfeeling  arm  of  a  foreign  soldiery  pours  out  their 
kindred  blood  like  water,  they  exult  and  triumph  as 


LETTER  TO  THE  SHERIFFS  OF  BRISTOL       203 

if  they  themselves  had  performed  some  notable  ex 
ploit.  I  am  really  ashamed  of  the  fashionable  language 
which  has  been  held  for  some  time  past,  which,  to  say 
the  best  of  it,  is  full  of  levity.  You  know  that  I  allude 
to  the  general  cry  against  the  cowardice  of  the  Amer 
icans,  as  if  we  despised  them  for  not  making  the  king 's 
soldiery  purchase  the  advantage  they  have  obtained  at 
a  dearer  rate.  It  is  not,  gentlemen,  it  is  not  to  respect 
the  dispensations  of  Providence,  nor  to  provide  any 
decent  retreat  in  the  mutability  of  human  affairs.  It 
leaves  no  medium  between  insolent  victory  and  infam 
ous  defeat.  It  tends  to  alienate  our  minds  farther  and 
farther  from  our  natural  regards,  and  to  make  an 
eternal  rent  and  schism  in  the  British  nation.  Those 
who  do  not  wish  for  such  a  separation  would  not  dis 
solve  that  cement  of  reciprocal  esteem  and  regard 
which  can  alone  bind  together  the  parts  of  this  great 
fabric.  It  ought  to  be  our  wish,  as  it  is  our  duty,  not 
only  to  forbear  this  style  of  outrage  ourselves,  but 
to  make  every  one  as  sensible  as  we  can  of  the  im 
propriety  and  unworthiness  of  the  tempers  which  give 
rise  to  it,  and  which  designing  men  are  laboring  with 
such  malignant  industry  to  diffuse  amongst  us.  It  is 
our  business  to  counteract  them  if  possible ;  if  possible, 
to  awake  our  natural  regards;  and  to  revive  the  old 
partiality  to  the  English  name.  Without  something  of 
this  kind  I  do  not  see  how  it  is  ever  practicable  really 
to  reconcile  with  those  whose  affection,  after  all,  must 
be  the  surest  hold  of  our  government ;  and  which  is  a 
thousand  times  more  worth  to  us  that  the  mercenary 
zeal  of  all  the  circles  of  Germany. 


204  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

I  can  well  conceive  a  country  completely  overrun, 
and  miserably  wasted,  without  approaching  in  the  least 
to  settlement.  In  my  apprehension,  as  long  as  Eng 
lish  government  is  attempted  to  be  supported  over 
Englishmen  by  the  sword  alone,  things  will  thus  con 
tinue.  I  anticipate  in  my  mind  the  moment  of  the  final 
triumph  of 'foreign  military  force.  When  that  hour 
arrives  (for  it  may  arrive) ,  then  it  is  that  all  this  mass 
of  weakness  and  violence  will  appear  in  its  full  light. 
If  we  should  be  expelled  from  America,  the  delusion 
of  the  partisans  of  military  government  might  still 
continue.  They  might  still  feed  their  imaginations 
with  the  possible  good  consequences  which  might  have 
attended  success.  Nobody  could  prove  the  contrary  by 
facts.  But  in  case  the  sword  should  do  all  that  the 
sword  can  do,  the  success  of  their  arms  and  the  de 
feat  of  their  policy  will  be  one  and  the  same  thing.  You 
will  never  see  any  revenue  from  America.  Some  in 
crease  of  the  means  of  corruption,  without  ease  of 
the  public  burthens,  is  the  very  best  that  can  happen. 

Is  it  for  this  that  we  are  at  war — and  in  such  a  war  ? 

******* 

This  outrageous  language,  which  has  been  encour 
aged  and  kept  alive  by  every  art,  has  already  done 
incredible  mischief.  For  a  long  time,  even  amidst  the 
desolations  of  war  and  the  insults  of  hostile  laws  daily 
accumulated  on  one  another,  the  American  leaders 
seem  to  have  had  the  greatest  difficulty  in  bringing  up 
their  people  to  a  declaration  of  total  independence. 
But  the  court  gazette  accomplished  what  the  abettors 
of  independence  had  attempted  in  vain.  When  that 


LETTER  TO  THE  SHERIFFS  OF  BRISTOL       205 

disingenuous  compilation,  and  strange  medley  of  rail 
ing  and  flattery,  was  adduced  as  a  proof  of  the  united 
sentiments  of  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  there  was  a 
great  change  throughout  all  America.  The  tide  of  pop 
ular  affection,  which  had  still  set  towards  the  parent 
country,  begun  immediately  to  turn,  and  to  flow  with 
great  rapidity  in  a  contrary  course.  Far  from  con 
cealing  these  wild  declarations  of  enmity,  the  author 
of  the  celebrated  pamphlet  which  prepared  the  minds 
of  the  people  for  independence,  insists  largely  on  the 
multitude  and  the  spirit  of  these  addresses;  and  he 
draws  an  argument  from  them  which,  if  the  fact  was 
as  he  supposes,  must  be  irresistible.  For  I  never  knew 
a  writer  on  the  theory  of  government  so  partial  to 
authority  as  not  to  allow  that  the  hostile  mind  of  the 
rulers  to  their  people  did  fully  justify  a  change  of 
government;  nor  can  any  reason  whatever  be  given 
why  one  people  should  voluntarily  yield  any  degree 
of  pre-eminence  to  another,  but  on  a  supposition  of 
great  affection  and  benevolence  towards  them.  Unfor 
tunately  your  rulers,  trusting  to  other  things,  took 
no  notice  of  this  great  principle  of  connection.  From 
the  beginning  of  this  affair  they  have  done  all  they 
could  to  alienate  your  minds  from  your  own  kindred ; 
and  if  they  could  excite  hatred  enough  in  one  of  the 
parties  towards  the  other,  they  seemed  to  be  of  opinion 
that  they  had  gone  half  the  way  towards  reconciling 
the  quarrel. 

Tolerated  in  their  passions,  let  them  learn  not  to 
persecute  the  moderation  of  their  fellow-citizens.    If 


206          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

all  the  world  joined  them  in  a  full  cry  against  rebellion, 
and  were  as  hotly  inflamed  against  the  whole  theory 
and  enjoyment  of  freedom  as  those  who  are  the  most 
factious  for  servitude,  it  could  not  in  my  opinion  an 
swer  any  one  end  whatsoever  in  this  contest.  The 
leaders  of  this  war  could  not  hire  (to  gratify  their 
friends)  one  German  more  than  they  do;  or  inspire 
him  with  less  feeling  for  the  persons,  or  less  value  for 
the  privileges,  of  their  revolted  brethren.  If  we  all 
adopted  their  sentiments  to  a  man,  their  allies,  the 
savage  Indians,  could  not  be  more  ferocious  than  they 
are :  they  could  not  murder  one  more  helpless  woman 
or  child,  or  with  more  exquisite  refinements  of  cruelty 
torment  to  death  one  more  of  their  English  flesh  and 
blood  than  they  do  already.  The  public  money  is 
given  to  purchase  this  alliance — and  they  have  their 
bargain. 

They  are  continually  boasting  of  unanimity,  or  call 
ing  for  it.  But  before  this  unanimity  can  be  matter 
either  of  wish  or  congratulation,  we  ought  to  be  pretty 
sure  that  we  are  engaged  in  a  rational  pursuit.  Frenzy 
does  not  become  a  slighter  distemper  on  account  of  the 
number  of  those  who  may  be  infected  with  it.  Delusion 
and  weakness  produce  not  one  mischief  the  less  because 
they  are  universal.  I  declare  that  I  cannot  discern  the 
least  advantage  which  could  accrue  to  us  if  we  were 
able  to  persuade  our  colonies  that  they  had  not  a  single 
friend  in  Great  Britain.  On  the  contrary,  if  the  affec 
tions  and  opinions  of  mankind  be  not  exploded  as 
principles  of  connection,  I  conceive  it  would  be  happy 
for  us  if  they  were  taught  to  believe  that  there  was 


LETTER  TO  THE  SHERIFFS  OF  BRISTOL       207 

even  a  formed  American  party  in  England,  to  whom 
they  could  always  look  for  support !  Happy  would  it 
be  for  us  if,  in  all  tempers,  they  might  turn  their  eyes 
to  the  parent  state,  so  that  their  very  turbulence  and 
sedition  should  find  vent  in  no  other  place  than  this.  I 
believe  there  is  not  a  man  (except  those  who. prefer 
the  interest  of  some  paltry  faction  to  the  very  being 
of  their  country)  who  would  not  wish  that  the  Ameri 
cans  should  from  time  to  time  carry  many  points,  and 
even  some  of  them  not  quite  reasonable,  by  the  aid  of 
any  denomination  of  men  here,  rather  than  they  should 
be  driven  to  seek  for  protection  against  the  fury  of 
foreign  mercenaries,  and  the  waste  of  savages,  in  the 

arms  of  France. 

******* 

If  there  be  one  fact  in  the  world  perfectly  clear,  it 
is  this :  * l  That  the  disposition  of  the  people  of  America 
is  wholly  averse  to  any  other  than  a  free  government" ; 
and  this  is  indication  enough  to  any  honest  statesman 
how  he  ought  to  adapt  whatever  power  he  finds  in  his 
hands  to  their  case.  If  any  ask  me  what  a  free  govern 
ment  is,  I  answer  that,  for  any  practical  purpose,  it  is 
what  the  people  think  so;  and  that  they,  and  not  I, 
are  the  natural,  lawful,  and  competent  judges  of  this 
matter.  If  they  practically  allow  me  a  greater  degree 
of  authority  over  them  than  is  consistent  with  any 
correct  ideas  of  perfect  freedom,  I  ought  to  thank  them 
for  so  great  a  trust,  and  not  to  endeavor  to  prove  from 
thence  that  they  have  reasoned  amiss  and  that,  having 
gone  so  far,  by  analogy  they  must  hereafter  have  no 
enjoyment  but  by  my  pleasure. 


208          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

If  we  had  seen  this  done  by  any  others,  we  should 
have  concluded  them  far  gone  in  madness.  It  is  melan 
choly  as  well  as  ridiculous  to  observe  the  kind  of  rea 
soning  with  which  the  public  has  been  amused,  in  order 
to  divert  our  minds  from  the  common  sense  of  our 
American  policy.  There  are  people  who  have  split  and 
anatomized  the  doctrine  of  free  government  as  if  it 
were  an  abstract  question  concerning  metaphysical 
liberty  and  necessity,  and  not  a  matter  of  moral  pru 
dence  and  natural  feeling.  They  have  disputed  whether 
liberty  be  a  positive  or  a  negative  idea;  whether  it 
does  not  consist  in  being  governed  by  laws,  without 
considering  what  are  the  laws,  or  who  are  the  makers ; 
whether  man  has  any  rights  by  nature ;  and  whether  all 
the  property  he  enjoys  be  not  the  alms  of  his  govern 
ment,  and  his  life  itself  their  favor  and  indulgence. 
Others,  corrupting  religion  as  these  have  perverted 
philosophy,  contend  that  Christians  are  redeemed  into 
captivity  and  the  blood  of  the  Savior  of  mankind  has 
been  shed  to  make  them  the  slaves  of  a  few  proud  and 
insolent  sinners.  These  shocking  extremes  provoking 
to  extremes  of  another  kind,  speculations  are  let  loose 
as  destructive  to  all  authority  as  the  former  are  to  all 
freedom ;  and  every  government  is  called  tyranny  and 
usurpation  which  is  not  formed  on  their  fancies.  In 
this  manner  the  stirrers-up  of  this  contention,  not  sat 
isfied  with  distracting  our  dependencies  and  filling 
them  with  blood  and  slaughter,  are  corrupting  our 
understandings :  they  are  endeavoring  to  tear  up,  along 
with  practical  liberty,  all  the  foundations  of  human 
society,  all  equity  and  justice,  religion  and  order. 


LETTER  TO  THE  SHERIFFS  OF  BRISTOL       209 

The  war  is  now  of  full  two  years'  standing;  the 
controversy  of  many  more.  In  different  periods  of  the 
dispute  different  methods  of  reconciliation  were  to  be 
pursued.  I  mean  to  trouble  you  with  a  short  state  of 
things  at  the  most  important  of  these  periods,  in  order 
to  give  you  a  more  distinct  idea  of  our  policy  with 
regard  to  this  most  delicate  of  all  objects.  The  col 
onies  were  from  the  beginning  subject  to  the  legisla 
ture  of  Great  Britain,  on  principles  which  they  never 
examined ;  and  we  permitted  to  them  many  local  privi 
leges,  without  asking  how  they  agreed  with  that  legis 
lative  authority.  Modes  of  administration  were  formed 
in  an  insensible  and  very  unsystematic  manner.  But 
they  gradually  adapted  themselves  to  the  varying 
conditions  of  things.  "What  was  first  a  single  kingdom 
stretched  into  an  empire,  and  an  imperial  superin- 
tendency  of  some  kind  or  other  became  necessary.  Par 
liament,  from  a  mere  representative  of  the  people  and 
a  guardian  of  popular  privileges  for  its  own  imme 
diate  constituents,  grew  into  a  mighty  sovereign.  In 
stead  of  being  a  control  on  the  crown  on  its  own  behalf 
it  communicated  a  sort  of  strength  to  the  royal  author 
ity,  which  was  wanted  for  the  conservation  of  a  new 
object,  but  which  could  not  be  safely  trusted  to  the 
crown  alone.  On  the  other  hand,  the  colonies,  advan 
cing  by  equal  steps  and  governed  by  the  same  neces 
sity,  had  formed  within  themselves,  either  by  royal 
instruction  or  royal  charter,  assemblies  so  exceedingly 
resembling  a  parliament  in  all  their  forms,  functions, 
and  powers  that  it  was  impossible  they  should  not  im 
bibe  some  opinion  of  a  similar  authority. 


210          BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

At  the  first  designation  of  these  assemblies  they 
were  probably  not  intended  for  anything  more  (nor 
perhaps  did  they  think  themselves  much  higher)  than 
the  municipal  corporations  within  this  island,  to  which 
some  at  present  love  to  compare  them.  But  nothing  in 
progression  can  rest  on  its  original  plan.  We  may  as 
well  think  of  rocking  a  grown  man  in  the  cradle  of  an 
infant.  Therefore  as  the  colonies  prospered  and  in 
creased  to  a  numerous  and  mighty  people,  spreading 
over  a  very  great  tract  of  the  globe,  it  was  natural 
that  they  should  attribute  to  assemblies  so  respectable 
in  their  formal  constitution  some  part  of  the  dignity  of 
the  great  nations  which  they  represented.  No  longer 
tied  to  by-laws,  these  assemblies  made  acts  of  all  sorts 
and  in  all  cases  whatsoever.  They  levied  money,  not 
for  parochial  purposes,  but  upon  regular  grants  to 
the  crown,  following  all  the  rules  and  principles  of  a 
parliament,  to  which  they  approached  every  day  more 
and  more  nearly.  Those  who  think  themselves  wiser 
than  Providence,  and  stronger  than  the  course  of  na 
ture,  may  complain  of  all  this  variation,  on  the  one 
side  or  the  other,  as  their  several  humors  and  preju 
dices  may  lead  them.  But  things  could  not  be  other 
wise  ;  and  English  colonies  must  be  had  on  these  terms, 
or  not  had  at  all.  In  the  meantime,  neither  party  felt 
any  inconvenience  from  this  double  legislature  to  which 
they  had  been  formed  by  imperceptible  habits  and  old 
custom,  the  great  support  of  all  the  governments  in 
the  world.  Though  these  two  legislatures  were  some 
times  found  perhaps  performing  the  very  same  func 
tions,  they  did  not  very  grossly  or  systematically  clash. 


LETTER  TO  THE  SHERIFFS  OF  BRISTOL       211 

In  all  likelihood  this  arose  from  mere  neglect ;  possibly 
from  the  natural  operation  of  things,  which,  left  to 
themselves,  generally  fall  into  their  proper  order.  But 
whatever  was  the  cause,  it  is  certain  that  a  regular 
revenue,  by  the  authority  of  Parliament,  for  the  sup 
port  of  civil  and  military  establishments,  seems  not  to 
have  been  thought  of  until  the  colonies  were  too  proud 
to  submit,  too  strong  to  be  forced,  too  enlightened  not 
to  see  all  the  consequences  which  must  arise  from  such 
a  system. 

If  ever  this  scheme  of  taxation  was  to  be  pushed 
against  the  inclinations  of  the  people,  it  was  evident 
that  discussions  must  arise  which  would  let  loose  all 
the  elements  that  composed  this  double  constitution; 
would  show  how  much  each  of  their  members  had  de 
parted  from  its  original  principles ;  and  would  discover 
contradictions  in  each  legislature,  as  well  to  its  own 
first  principles  as  to  its  relation  to  the  other,  very  diffi 
cult,  if  not  absolutely  impossible,  to  be  reconciled. 

Therefore  at  the  first  fatal  opening  of  this  contest 
the  wisest  course  seemed  to  be  to  put  an  end  as  soon 
as  possible  to  the  immediate  causes  of  the  dispute ;  and 
to  quiet  a  discussion,  not  easily  settled  upon  clear  prin 
ciples,  and  arising  from  claims  which  pride  would  per 
mit  neither  party  to  abandon,  by  resorting  as  nearly 
as  possible  to  the  old,  successful  course.  A  mere  repeal 
of  the  obnoxious  tax,  with  a  declaration  of  the  legisla 
tive  authority  of  this  kingdom,  was  then  fully  suffi 
cient  to  procure  peace  to  both  sides.  Man  is  a  creature 
of  habit,  and,  the  first  breach  being  of  very  short  con 
tinuance,  the  colonies  fell  back  exactly  into  their  an- 


212          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

cient  state.  The  congress  has  used  an  expression  with 
regard  to  this  pacification  which  appears  to  me  truly 
significant.  After  the  repeal  of  the  stamp  act  "the 
colonies  fell,"  says  this  assembly,  "into  their  ancient 
state  of  unsuspecting  confidence  in  the  mother  courir 
try."  This  unsuspecting  confidence  is  the  true  center 
of  gravity  amongst  mankind,  about  which  all  the  parts 
are  at  rest.  It  is  this  unsuspecting  confidence  that  re 
moves  all  difficulties,  and  reconciles  all  the  contradic 
tions  which  occur  in  the  complexity  of  all  ancient, 
puzzled,  political  establishments.  Happy  are  the  rulers 
which  have  the  secret  of  preserving  it ! 

The  whole  empire  has  reason  to  remember,  with  eter 
nal  gratitude,  the  wisdom  and  temper  of  that  man  and 
his  excellent  associates  who,  to  recover  this  confidence, 
formed  a  plan  of  pacification  in  1766.  That  plan,  being 
built  upon  the  nature  of  man,  and  the  circumstances 
and  habits  of  the  two  countries,  and  not  on  any  vision 
ary  speculations,  perfectly  answered  its  end  as  long 
as  it  was  thought  proper  to  adhere  to  it.  Without  giv 
ing  a  rude  shock  to  the  dignity  (well  or  ill  understood) 
of  this  Parliament,  they  gave  perfect  content  to  ou* 
dependencies.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  mediatorial 
spirit  and  talents  of  that  great  man,  between  such 
clashing  pretensions  and  passions,  we  should  then  have 
rushed  headlong  (I  know  what  I  say)  into  the  calami 
ties  of  that  civil  war  in  which,  by  departing  from  his 
system,  we  are  at  length  involved ;  and  we  should  have 
been  precipitated  into  that  war  at  a  time  when  cir 
cumstances  both  at  home  and  abroad  were  far,  very  far, 
more  unfavorable  unto  us  than  they  were  at  the  break 
ing  out  of  the  present  troubles. 


LETTER  TO  THE  SHERIFFS  OF  BRISTOL       213 

I  had  the  happiness  of  giving  my  first  votes  in  Par 
liament  for  their  pacification.  I  was  one  of  those  almost 
unanimous  members  who,  in  the  necessary  concessions 
of  Parliament,  would  as  much  as  possible  have  pre 
served  its  authority  and  respected  its  honor.  I  could 
not  at  once  tear  from  my  heart  prejudices  which  were 
dear  to  me,  and  which  bore  a  resemblance  to  virtue. 
I  had  then,  and  I  have  still,  my  partialities.  What  Par 
liament  gave  up  I  wished  to  be  given  as  of  grace,  and 
favor,  and  affection,  and  not  as  a  restitution  of  stolen 
goods.  High  dignity  relented  as  it  was  soothed;  and 
a  benignity  from  old  acknowledged  greatness  had  its 
full  effect  on  our  dependencies.  Our  unlimited  declara 
tion  of  legislative  authority  produced  not  a  single  mur 
mur.  If  this  undefined  power  has  become  odious  since 
that  time,  and  full  of  horror  to  the  colonies,  it  is  be 
cause  the  unsuspicious  confidence  is  lost,  and  the  pa 
rental  affection,  in  the  bosom  of  whose  boundless 
authority  they  reposed  their  privileges,  is  become  es 
tranged  and  hostile. 

It  will  be  asked :  If  such  was  then  my  opinion  of  the 
mode  of  pacification,  how  I  came  to  be  the  very  person 
who  moved,  not  only  for  a  repeal  of  all  the  late  coer 
cive  statutes,  but  for  mutilating,  by  a  positive  law, 
the  entireness  of  the  legislative  power  of  Parliament, 
and  cutting  off  from  it  the  whole  right  of  taxation  ?  I 
answer,  Because  a  different  state  of  things  requires 
a  different  conduct.  When  the  dispute  had  gone  to 
these  last  extremities  (which  no  man  labored  more  to 
prevent  than  I  did),  the  concessions  which  had  satis 
fied  in  the  beginning  could  satisfy  no  longer,  because 


214          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

the  violation  of  tacit  faith  required  explicit  security. 
The  same  cause  which  has  introduced  all  formal  com 
pacts  and  covenants  among  men  made  it  necessary.  I 
mean  habits  of  soreness,  jealousy,  and  distrust.  I  parted 
with  it  as  with  a  limb,  but  as  a  limb  to  save  the  body ; 
and  I  would  have  parted  with  more,  if  more  had  been 
necessary — anything  rather  than  a  fruitless,  hopeless, 
unnatural  civil  war.  This  mode  of  yielding  would, 
it  is  said,  give  way  to  independency,  without  a  war.  I 
am  persuaded  from  the  nature  of  things,  and  from 
every  information,  that  it  would  have  had  a  directly 
contrary  effect.  But  if  it  had  this  effect,  I  confess  that 
I  should  prefer  independency  without  war  to  indepen 
dency  with  it ;  and  I  have  so  much  trust  in  the  inclina 
tions  and  prejudices  of  mankind,  and  so  little  in  any 
thing  else,  that  I  should  expect  ten  times  more  benefit 
to  this  kingdom  from  the  affection  of  America,  though 
under  a  separate  establishment,  than  from  her  perfect 
submission  to  the  crown  and  Parliament,  accompanied 
with  her  terror,  disgust,  and  abhorrence.  Bodies  tied 
together  by  so  unnatural  a  bond  of  union  as  mutual 
hatred  are  only  connected  to  their  ruin. 

One  hundred  and  ten  respectable  members  of  Par 
liament  voted  for  that  concession.  Many  not  present 
when  the  motion  was  made  were  of  the  sentiments  of 
those  who  voted.  I  knew  it  would  then  have  made 
peace.  I  am  not  without  hopes  that  it  would  do  so  at 
present  if  it  were  adopted.  No  benefit,  no  revenue, 
could  be  lost  by  it ;  something  might  possibly  be  gained 
by  its  consequences.  For  be  fully  assured  that,  of  all 
the  phantoms  that  ever  deluded  the  fond  hopes  of  a 


LETTER  TO  THE  SHERIFFS  OF  BRISTOL       215 

credulous  world,  a  parliamentary  revenue  in  the  col 
onies  is  the  most  perfectly  chimerical.  Your  breaking 
them  to  any  subjections,  far  from  relieving  your 
burthens  (the  pretext  for  this  war),  will  never  pay 
that  military  force  which  will  be  kept  up  to  the  de 
struction  of  their  liberties  and  yours.  I  risk  nothing 

in  this  prophecy. 

e   .*•*•'•    4f 

This,  gentlemen,  has  been  from  the  beginning  the 
rule  of  my  conduct ;  and  I  mean  to  continue  it  as  long 
as  such  a  body  as  I  have  described  can  by  any  pos 
sibility  be  kept  together ;  for  I  should  think  it  the  most 
dreadful  of  all  offenses,  not  only  towards  the  present 
generation,  but  to  all  the  future,  if  I  were  to  do  any 
thing  which  could  make  the  minutest  breach  in  this 
great  conservatory  of  free  principles.  Those  who  per 
haps  have  the  same  intentions,  but  are  separated  by 
some  little  political  animosities,  will  I  hope  discern  at 
last  how  little  conducive  it  is  to  any  rational  purpose 
to  lower  its  reputation.  For  my  part,  gentlemen,  from 
much  experience,  from  no  little  thinking,  and  from 
comparing  a  great  variety  of  things,  I  am  thoroughly 
persuaded  that  the  last  hopes  of  preserving  the  spirit 
of  the  English  constitution,  or  of  reuniting  the  dissi 
pated  members  of  the  English  race  upon  a  common 
plan  of  tranquillity  and  liberty,  does  entirely  depend 
on  their  firm  and  lasting  union ;  and  above  all  on  their 
keeping  themselves  from  that  despair  which  is  so  very 
apt  to  fall  on  those  whom  a  violence  of  character  and  a 
mixture  of  ambitious  views  do  not  support  through  a 
long,  painful,  and  unsuccessful  struggle. 


216          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

There  never,  gentlemen,  was  a  period  in  which  the 
steadfastness  of  some  men  has  been  put  to  so  sore  a 
trial.  It  is  not  very  difficult  for  well-formed  minds  to 
abandon  their  interest ;  but  the  separation  of  fame  and 
virtue  is  a  harsh  divorce.  Liberty  is  in  danger  of 
being  made  unpopular  to  Englishmen.  Contending 
for  an  imaginary  power,  we  begin  to  acquire  the  spirit 
of  domination,  and  to  lose  the  relish  of  honest  equality. 
The  principles  of  our  forefathers  become  suspected 
to  us,  because  we  see  them  animating  the  present  oppo 
sition  of  our  children.  The  faults  which  grow  out  of 
the  luxuriance  of  freedom  appear  much  more  shocking 
to  us  than  the  base  vices  which  are  generated  from 
the  rankness  of  servitude.  Accordingly  the  least  resist 
ance  to  power  appears  more  inexcusable  in  our  eyes 
than  the  greatest  abuses  of  authority.  All  dread  of  a 
standing  military  force  is  looked  upon  as  a  supersti 
tious  panic.  All  shame  of  calling  in  foreigners  and  sav 
ages  in  a  civil  contest  is  worn  off.  We  grow  indifferent 
to  the  consequences  inevitable  to  ourselves  from  the 
plan  of  ruling  half  the  empire  by  a  mercenary  sword. 
We  are  taught  to  believe  that  a  desire  of  domineering 
over  our  countrymen  is  love  to  our  country ;  that  those 
who  hate  civil  war  abet  rebellion,  and  that  the  amiable 
and  conciliatory  virtues  of  lenity,  moderation,  and  ten 
derness  to  the  privileges  of  those  who  depend  on  this 
kingdom  are  a  sort  of  treason  to  the  state. 

It  is  impossible  that  we  should  remain  long  in  a  situ 
ation  which  breeds  such  notions  and  dispositions,  with 
out  some  great  alteration  in  the  national  character. 
Those  ingenuous  and  feeling  minds  who  are  so  fortified 


LETTER  TO  THE  SHERIFFS  OF  BRISTOL       217 

against  all  other  things,  and  so  unarmed  to  whatever 
approaches  in  the  shape  of  disgrace,  finding  these  prin 
ciples,  which  they  considered  as  sure  means  of  honor, 
to  be  grown  into  disrepute,  will  retire  disheartened 
and  disgusted.  Those  of  a  more  robust  make — the  bold, 
able,  ambitious  men,  who  pay  some  of  their  court  to 
power  through  the  people,  and  substitute  the  voice  of 
transient  opinion  in  the  place  of  true  glory — will  give 
in  to  the  general  mode ;  and  those  superior  understand 
ings  which  ought  to  correct  vulgar  prejudices  will  con 
firm  and  aggravate  its  errors.  Many  things  have  been 
long  operating  towards  a  gradual  change  in  our  prin 
ciples.  But  this  American  war  has  done  more  in  a 
very  few  years  than  all  the  other  causes  could  have 
effected  in  a  century.  It  is  therefore  not  on  its  own 
separate  account,  but  because  of  its  attendant  cir 
cumstances,  that  I  consider  its  continuance,  or  its  end 
ing  in  any  way  but  that  of  an  honorable  and  liberal 
accommodation,  as  the  greatest  evil  which  can  befall 
us.  For  that  reason  I  have  troubled  you  with  this  long 
letter.  For  that  reason  I  entreat  you  again  and  again, 
neither  to  be  persuaded,  shamed,  or  frighted  out  of 
the  principles  that  have  hitherto  led  so  many  of  you  to 
abhor  the  war,  its  cause,  and  its  consequences.  Let  us 
not  be  among  the  first  who  renounce  the  maxims  of 
our  forefathers. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  gentlemen,  your  most  obedi 
ent  and  faithful  humble  servant, 

EDMUND  BURKE. 

BEACONSFIELD,  April  3,  1777. 


218          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

THOUGHTS  ON  THE  CAUSE  OF  THE  PRESENT 
DISCONTENTS 

Nobody,  I  believe,  will  consider  it  merely  as  the  Ian- 
gauge  of  spleen  or  disappointment  if  I  say  that  there 
is  something  particularly  alarming  in  the  present  con 
juncture.  There  is  hardly  a  man,  in  or  out  of  power, 
who  holds  any  other  language.  That  government  is 
at  once  dreaded  and  contemned ;  that  the  laws  are  des 
poiled  of  all  their  respected  and  salutary  terrors ;  that 
their  inaction  is  a  subject  of  ridicule,  and  their  exer 
tion  of  abhorrence ;  that  rank,  and  office  and  title,  and 
all  the  solemn  plausibilities  of  the  world  have  lost 
their  reverence  and  effect;  that  our  foreign  politics 
are  as  much  deranged  as  our  domestic  economy ;  that 
our  dependencies  are  slackened  in  their  affection,  and 
loosened  from  their  obedience;  that  we  know  neither 
how  to  yield  nor  how  to  enforce ;  that  hardly  anything 
above  or  below,  abroad  or  at  home,  is  sound  and  entire ; 
but  that  disconnection  and  confusion,  in  offices,  in 
parties,  in  families,  in  Parliament,  in  the  nation,  pre 
vail  beyond  the  disorders  of  any  former  time — these 
are  facts  universally  admitted  and  lamented. 

This  state  of  things  is  the  more  extraordinary,  be 
cause  the  great  parties  which  formerly  divided  and 
agitated  the  kingdom  are  known  to  be  in  a  manner 
entirely  dissolved.  No  great  external  calamity  has 
visited  our  nation ;  no  pestilence  or  famine.  We  do  not 
labor  at  present  under  any  scheme  of  taxation  new  or 
oppressive  in  the  quantity  or  in  the  mode.  Nor  are 
we  engaged  in  unsuccessful  war,  in  which  our  misfor 
tunes  might  easily  pervert  our  judgment,  and  our 


THE  PRESENT  DISCONTENTS  219 

minds,  sore  from  the  loss  of  national  glory,  might  feel 

every  blow  of  fortune  as  a  crime  in  government. 

******* 

The  power  of  the  crown,  almost  dead  and  rotten 
as  Prerogative,  has  grown  up  anew,  with  much  more 
strength,  and  far  less  odium,  under  the  name  of  Influ 
ence.  An  influence  which  operated  without  noise  and 
without  violence,  an  influence  which  converted  the 
very  antagonist  into  the  instrument  of  power,  which 
contained  in  itself  a  perpetual  principle  of  growth 
and  renovation,  and  which  the  distresses  and  the  pros 
perity  of  the  country  equally  tended  to  augment,  was 
an  admirable  substitute  for  a  prerogative,  that,  being 
only  the  offspring  of  antiquated  prejudices,  had 
moulded  in  its  original  stamina  irresistible  principles 
of  decay  and  dissolution.  The  ignorance  of  the  people 
is  a  bottom  but  for  a  temporary  system ;  the  interest 
of  active  men  in  the  state  is  a  foundation  perpetual 
and  infallible.  However,  some  circumstances,  arising, 
it  must  be  confessed,  in  a  great  degree  from  accident, 
prevented  the  effects  of  this  influence  for  a  long  time 
from  breaking  out  in  a  manner  capable  of  exciting 
any  serious  apprehensions.  Although  government  was 
strong  and  flourished  exceedingly,  the  court  had  drawn 
far  less  advantage  than  one  would  imagine  from  this 

great  source  of  power. 

******* 

To  get  rid  of  all  this  intermediate  and  independent 
importance,  and  to  secure  to  the  court  the  unlimited 
and  uncontrolled  use  of  its  own  vast  influence,  under 
the  sole  direction  of  its  own  private  favor,  has  for 


220  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

some  years  past  been  the  great  object  of  policy.  If 
this  were  compassed,  the  influence  of  the  crown  must 
of  course  produce  all  the  effects  which  the  most  san 
guine  partisans  of  the  court  could  possibly  desire. 
Government  might  then  be  carried  on  without  any 
concurrence  on  the  part  of  the  people,  without  any 
attention  to  the  dignity  of  the  greater,  or  to  the 
affections  of  the  lower  sorts.  A  new  project  was  there 
fore  devised  by  a  certain  s%t  of  intriguing  men,  totally 
different  from  the  system  of  administration  which  had 
prevailed  since  the  accession  of  the  House  of  Bruns 
wick.  This  project,  I  have  heard,  was  first  conceived 
by  some  persons  in  the  court  of  Frederick,  Prince  of 
Wales. 

The  earliest  attempt  in  the  execution  of  this  design 
was  to  set  up  for  minister  a  person,  in  rank  indeed 
respectable,  and  very  ample  in  fortune;  but  who,  to 
the  moment  of  this  vast  and  sudden  elevation,  was 
little  known  or  considered  in  the  kingdom.  To  him  the 
whole  nation  was  to  yield  an  immediate  and  implicit 
submission.  But  whether  it  was  from  want  of  firm 
ness  to  bear  up  against  the  first  opposition,  or  that 
things  were  not  yet  fully  ripened,  or  that  this  method 
was  not  .found  the  most  eligible,  that  idea  was  soon 
abandoned.  The  instrumental  part  of  the  project  was 
a  little  altered,  to  accommodate  it  to  the  time  and  to 
bring  things  more  gradually  and  more  surely  to  the 
one  great  end  proposed. 

The  first  part  of  the  reformed  plan  was  to  draw  a 
line  which  should  separate  the  court  from  the  ministry. 
Hitherto  these  names  had  been  looked  upon  as  synon- 


THE  PRESENT  DISCONTENTS  221 

ymous;  but  for  the  future,  court  and  administration 
were  to  be  considered  as  things  totally  distinct.  By 
this  operation  two  systems  of  administration  were  to 
be  formed :  one  which  should  be  in  the  real  secret  and 
confidence,  the  other  merely  ostensible  to  perform  the 
official  and  executory  duties  of  government.  The  latter 
were  alone  to  be  responsible ;  whilst  the  real  advisers, 
who  enjoyed  all  the  power,  were  effectually  removed 
from  all  the  danger. 

Secondly,  a  party  under  these  leaders  was  to  be 
formed  in  favor  of  the  court  against  the  ministry: 
this  party  was  to  have  a  large  share  in  the  emoluments 
of  government,  and  to  hold  it  totally  separate  from, 
and  independent  of,  ostensible  administration. 

The  third  point,  and  that  on  which  the  success  of 
the  whole  scheme  ultimately  depended,  was  to  bring 
Parliament  to  an  acquiescence  in  this  project.  Par 
liament  was  therefore  to  be  taught  by  degrees  a  total 
indifference  to  the  persons,  rank,  influence,  abilities, 
connections,  and  character  of  the  ministers  of  the 
crown.  By  means  of  a  discipline,  on  which  I  shall  say 
more  hereafter,  that  body  was  to  be  habituated  to  the 
most  opposite  interests,  and  the  most  discordant  poli 
tics.  All  connections  and  dependencies  among  sub 
jects  were  to  be  entirely  dissolved.  As  hitherto  busi 
ness  had  gone  through  the  hands  of  leaders  of  Whigs 
or  Tories,  men  of  talents  to  conciliate  the  people  and 
to  engage  their  confidence,  now  the  method  was  to  be 
altered,  and  the  lead  was  to  be  given  to  men  of  no 
sort  of  consideration  or  credit  in  the  country.  This 
want  of  natural  importance  was  to  be  their  very  title 


222          BURKE  'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

to  delegated  power.  Members  of  Parliament  were  to 
be  hardened  into  an  insensibility  to  pride  as  well  as  to 
duty.  Those  high  and  haughty  sentiments,  which  are 
the  great  support  of  independence,  were  to  be  let  down 
gradually.  Points  of  honor  and  precedence  were  no 
more  to  be  regarded  in  Parliamentary  decorum  than 
in  a  Turkish  army.  It  was  to  be  avowed,  as  a  constitu 
tional  maxim,  that  the  king  might  appoint  one  of  his 
footmen  for  minister ;  and  that  he  ought  to  be,  and  that 
he  would  be,  as  well  followed  as  the  first  name  for  rank 
or  wisdom  in  the  nation.  Thus  Parliament  was  to  look 
on  as  if  perfectly  unconcerned  while  a  cabal  of  the 
closet  and  back-stairs  was  substituted  in  the  place  of 
a  national  administration. 

With  such  a  degree  of  acquiescence,  any  measure  of 
any  court  might  well  be  deemed  thoroughly  secure. 
The  capital  objects,  and  by  much  the  most  flattering 
characteristics  of  arbitrary  power,  would  be  obtained. 
Everything  would  be  drawn  from  its  holdings  in  the 
country  to  the  personal  favor  and  inclination  of  the 
prince.  This  favor  would  be  the  sole  introduction  to 
power,  and  the  only  tenure  by  which  it  was  to  be  held ; 
so  that  no  person  looking  towards  another,  and  all 
looking  toward  the  court,  it  was  impossible  but  that 
the  motive  which  solely  influenced  every  man's  hopes 
must  come  in  time  to  govern  every  man's  conduct; 
till  at  last  the  servility  became  universal,  in  spite  of 

the  dead  letter  of  any  laws  or. institutions  whatsoever. 

******* 

In  the  first  place,  they  proceeded  gradually,  but  not 
slowly,  to  destroy  everything  of  strength  which  did  not 


THE  PRESENT  DISCONTENTS  223 

derive  its  principal  nourishment  from  the  immediate 
pleasure  of  the  court.  The  greatest  weight  of  popular 
opinion  and  party  connection  were  then  with  the  Duke 
of  Newcastle  and  Mr.  Pitt.  Neither  of  these  held  their 
importance  by  the  new  tenure  of  the  court ;  they  were 
not  therefore  thought  to  be  so  proper  as  others  for  the 
services  which  were  required  by  that  tenure.  It  hap 
pened  very  favorably  for  the  new  system  that  under 
a  forced  coalition  there  rankled  an  incurable  alienation 
and  disgust  between  the  parties  which  composed  the 
administration.  Mr.  Pitt  was  first  attacked.  Not  sat 
isfied  with  removing  him  from  power,  they  endeavored 
by  various  artifices  to  ruin  his  character.  The  other 
party  seemed  rather  pleased  to  get  rid  of  so  oppressive 
a  support ;  not  perceiving,  that  their  own  fall  was  pre 
pared  by  his,  and  involved  in  it.  Many  other  reasons 
prevented  them  from  daring  to  look  their  true  situation 
in  the  face.  To  the  great  Whig  families  it  was  ex 
tremely  disagreeable,  and  seemed  almost  unnatural,  to 
oppose  the  administration  of  a  prince  of  the  House  of 
Brunswick.  Day  after  day  they  hesitated,  and  doubted, 
and  lingered,  expecting  that  other  counsels  would  take 
place;  and  were  slow  to  be  persuaded  that  all  which 
had  been  done  by  the  cabal  was  the  effect  not  of  humor, 
but  of  system.  It  was  more  strongly  and  evidently 
the  interest  of  the  new  court  faction  to  get  rid  of  the 
great  Whig  connections  than  to  destroy  Mr.  Pitt.  The 
power  of  that  gentleman  was  vast  indeed  and  merited ; 
but  it  was  in  a  great  degree  personal,  and  therefore 
transient.  Theirs  was  rooted  in  the  country.  For, 
with  a  good  deal  less  of  popularity,  they  possessed  a  far 


224          BURKE  TS  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

more  natural  and  fixed  influence.  Long  possession 
of  government;  vast  property;  obligations  of  favors 
given  and  received ;  connection  of  office ;  ties  of  blood, 
of  alliance,  of  friendship  (things  at  that  time  supposed 
of  some  force)  ;  the  name  of  Whig,  dear  to  the  majority 
of  the  people ;  the  zeal  early  begun  and  steadily  con 
tinued  to  the  royal  family— all  these  together  formed 
a  body  of  power  in  the  nation,  which  was  criminal  and 
devoted.  The  great  ruling  principle  of  the  cabal,  and 
that  which  animated  and  harmonized  all  their  pro 
ceedings,  how  various  soever  they  may  have  been,  was 
to  signify  to  the  world  that  the  court  would  proceed 
upon  its  own  proper  forces  only;  and  that  the  pre 
tence  of  bringing  any  other  into  its  service  was  an 
affront  to  it,  and  not  a  support.  Therefore  when  the 
chiefs  were  removed,  in  order  to  go  to  the  root,  the 
whole  party  was  put  under  a  proscription,  so  general 
and  severe  as  to  take  their  hard-earned  bread  from 
the  lowest  officers  in  a  manner  which  had  never  been 
known  before,  even  in  general  revolutions.  But  it  was 
thought  necessary  effectually  to  destroy  all  dependen 
cies  but  one,  and  to  show  an  example  of  the  firmness 
and  rigor  with  which  the  new  system  was  to  be  sup 
ported. 

******* 

These  were  some  of  the  many  artifices  used  to  recon 
cile  the  people  to  the  great  change  which  was  made  in 
the  persons  who  composed  the  ministry,  and  the  still 
greater  which  was  made  and  avowed  in  its  constitu 
tion.  As  to  individuals,  other  methods  were  employed 
with  them;  in  order  so  thoroughly  to  disunite  every 


THE  PKESENT  DISCONTENTS      .  225 

party,  and  even  e'very  family,  that  no  concert,  order, 
or  effect,  might  appear  in  any  future  opposition.  And 
in  this  manner  an  administration  without  connection 
with  the  people,  or  with  one  another,  was  first  put  in 
possession  of  government.  What  good  consequences 
followed  from  it  we  have  all  seen ;  whether  with  regard 
to  virtue,  public  or  private,  to  the  ease  and  happiness 
of  the  sovereign,  or  to  the  real  strength  of  government. 
But  as  so  much  stress  was  then  laid  on  the  necessity 
of  this  new  project,  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  take  a  view 
of  the  effects  of  this  royal  servitude  and  vile  durance, 
which  was  so  deplored  in  the  reign  of  the  late  monarch, 
and  was  so  carefully  to  be  avoided  in  the  reign  of  his 

successor.  The  effects  were  these. 

******* 

It  must  be  remembered  that  since  the  revolution, 
until  the. period  we  are  speaking  of,  the  influence  of 
the  crown  had  been  always  employed  in  supporting  the 
ministers  of  state,  and  in  carrying  on  the  public  busi 
ness  according  to  their  opinions.  But  the  party  now 
in  question  is  formed  upon  a  very  different  idea.  It 
is  to  intercept  the  favor,  protection,  and  confidence  of 
the  crown  in  the  passage  to  its  ministers ;  it  is  to  come 
between  them  and  their  importance  in  Parliament ;  it  is 
to  separate  them  from  all  their  natural  and  acquired 
dependencies ;  it  is  "intended  as  the  control,  not  the  sup 
port,  of  administration.  The  machinery  of  this  system 
is  perplexed  in  its  movements,  and  false  in  principle. 
It  is  formed  on  a  supposition  that  the  king  is  something 
external  to  his  government;  and  that  he  may  be  hon 
ored  and  aggrandized,  even  by  its  debility  and  dis- 


226          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

grace.  The  plan  proceeds  expressly  on  the  idea  of 
enfeebling  the  regular  executory  power.  It  proceeds 
on  the  idea  of  weakening  the  state  in  order  to 
strengthen  the  court.  The  scheme  depending  entirely 
on  distrust,  on  disconnection,  on  mutability  by  prin 
ciple,  on  systematic  weakness  in  every  particular  mem 
ber,  it  is  impossible  that  the  total  result  should  be 
substantial  strength  of  any  kind. 

As  a  foundation  of  their  scheme,  the  cabal  have 
established  a  sort  of  rota  in  the  court.  All  sorts  of 
parties,  by  this  means,  have  been  brought  into  admin 
istration;  from  whence  few  have  had  the  good  for 
tune  to  escape  without  disgrace;  none  at  all  without 
considerable  losses.  In  the  beginning  of  each  arrange 
ment  no  professions  of  confidence  and  support  are 
wanting  to  induce  the  leading  men  to  engage.  But 
while  the  ministers  of  the  day  appear  in  all  the  pomp 
and  pride  of  power,  while  they  have  all  their  canvas 
spread  out  to  the  wind,  and  every  sail  filled  with  the 
fair  and  prosperous  gale  of  royal  favor,  in  a  short  time 
they  find,  they  know  not  how,  a  current,  which  sets 
directly  against  them,  which  prevents  all  progress, 
and  even  drives  them  backwards.  They  grow  ashamed 
and  mortified  in  a  situation  which,  by  its  vicinity  to 
power,  only  serves  to  remind  them  the  more  strongly  of 
their  insignificance.  They  are  obliged  either  to  execute 
the  orders  of  their  inferiors,  or  to  see  themselves  op 
posed  by  the  natural  instruments  of  their  office.  With 
the  loss  of  their  dignity  they  lose  their  temper.  In 
their  turn  they  grow  troublesome  to  that  cabal  which, 
whether  it  supports  or  opposes,  equally  disgraces  and 


THE  PRESENT  DISCONTENTS  227 

equally  betrays  them.  It  is  soon  found  necessary  to 
get  rid  of  the  heads  of  administration;  but  it  is  of 
the  heads  only.  As  there  always  are  many  rotten  mem 
bers  belonging  to  the  best  connections,  it  is  not  hard  to 
persuade  .several  to  continue  in  office  without  their 
leaders.  By  this  means  the  party  goes  out  much  thinner, 
than  it  came  in;  and  is  only  reduced  in  strength  by 
its  temporary  possession  of  power.  Besides,  if  by  acci 
dent,  or  in  course  of  changes,  that  power  should  be 
recovered,  the  junto  have  thrown  up  a  retrenchment 
of  these  carcasses,  which  may  serve  to  cover  themselves 
in  a  day  of  danger.  They  conclude,  not  unwisely,  that 
such  rotten  members  will  become  the  first  objects  of 
disgust  and  resentment  to  their  ancient  connections. 

They  contrive  to  form  in  the  outward  administration 
two  parties  at  the  least ;  which,  whilst  they  are  tearing 
one  another  to  pieces,  are  both  competitors  for  the 
favor  and  protection  of  the  cabal ;  and,  by  their  emu 
lation,  contribute  to  throw  everything  more  and  more 
into  the  hands  of  the  interior  managers. 

A  minister  of  state  will  sometimes  keep  himself 
totally  estranged  from  all  his  colleagues;  will  differ 
from  them  in  their  councils,  will  privately  traverse, 
and  publicly  oppose,  their  measures.  He  will,  however, 
continue  in  his  employment.  Instead  of  suffering  any 
mark  of  displeasure,  he  will  be  distinguished  by  an 
unbounded  profusion  of  court  rewards  and  caresses, 
because  he  does  what  is  expected,  and  all  that  is 
expected,  from  men  in  office.  He  helps  to  keep  some 
form  of  administration  in  being,  and  keeps  it  at  the 
same  time  as  weak  and  divided  as  possible. 


228          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

However,  we  must  take  care  not  to  be  mistaken,  or 
to  imagine  that  such  persons  have  any  weight  in  their 
opposition.  When,  by  them,  administration  is  con 
vinced  of  its  insignificancy,  they  are  soon  to  be  con 
vinced  of  their  own.  They  never  are  suffered  to  suc 
ceed  in  their  opposition.  They  and  the  world  are  to 
be  satisfied  that  neither  office,  nor  authority,  nor 
property,  nor  ability,  eloquence,  skill,  or  union,  are 
of  the  least  importance';  but  that  the  mere  influence  of 
the  court,  naked  of  all  support  and  destitute  of  all 
management,  is  abundantly  sufficient  for  all  its  own 

purposes. 

******* 

The  members  of  the  court  faction  are  fully  indemni 
fied  for  not  holding  places  on  the  slippery  heights  of 
the  kingdom,  not  only  by  the  lead  in  all  affairs,  but 
also  by  the  perfect  security  in  which  they  enjoy  less 
conspicuous,  but  very  advantageous  situations.  Their 
places  are  in  express  legal  tenure,  or,  in  effect,  all  of 
them  for  life.  Whilst  the  first  and  most  respectable 
persons  in  the  kingdom  are  tossed  about  like  tennis- 
balls,  the  sport  of  a  blind  and  insolent  caprice,  no 
minister  dares  even  to  cast  an  oblique  glance  at  the 
lowest  of  their  body.  If  an  attempt  be  made  upon 
one  of  this  corps,  immediately  he  flies  to  sanctuary, 
and  pretends  to  the  most  inviolable  of  all  promises. 
No  conveniency  of  public  arrangement  is  available  to 
remove  any  one  of  them  from  the  specific  situation  he 
holds ;  and  the  slightest  attempt  upon  one  of  them,  by 
the  most  powerful  minister,  is  a  certain  preliminary 
to  his  own  destruction. 


THE  PRESENT  DISCONTENTS  229 

Conscious  of  their  independence,  they  bear  them 
selves  with  a  lofty  air  to  the  exterior  ministers.  Like 
janissaries,  they  derive  a  kind  of  freedom  from  the 
very  condition  of  their  servitude.  They  may  act  just 
as  they  please,  provided  they  are  true  to  the  great 
ruling  principle  of  their  institution.  It  is,  therefore, 
not  at  all  wonderful  that  people  should  be  so  desirous 
of  adding  themselves  to  that  body,  in  which  they  may 
possess  and  reconcile  satisfactions  the  most  alluring, 
and  seemingly  the  most  contradictory,  enjoying  at  once 
all  the  spirited  pleasure  of  independence,  and  all  the 
gross  lucre  and  fat  emoluments  of  servitude. 

Here  is  a  sketch,  though  a  slight  one,  of  the  con 
stitution,  laws,  and  policy  of  this  new  court  corpora 
tion.  The  name  by  which  they  choose  to  distinguish 
themselves  is  that  of  king's  men  or  the  king's  friends, 
by  an  invidious  exclusion  of  the  rest  of  his  Majesty's 
most  loyal  and  affectionate  subjects.  The  whole  sys 
tem,  comprehending  the  exterior  and  interior  admin 
istrations,  is  commonly  called,  in  the  technical  lan 
guage  of  the  court,  double  cabinet ;  in  French  or  Eng 
lish,  as  you  choose  to  pronounce  it. 

Whether  all  this  be  a  vision  of  a  distracted  brain, 
or  the  invention  of  a  malicious  heart,  or  a  real  faction 
in  the  country,  must  be  judged  by  the  appearances 
which  things  have  worn  for  eight  years  past.  Thus  far 
I  am  certain  that  there  is  not  a  single  public  man,  in 
or  out  of  office,  who  has  not,  at  some  time  or  other, 
borne  testimony  to  the  truth  of  what  I  have  now  re 
lated.  In  particular,  no  persons  have  been  more 
strong  in  their  assertions,  and  louder  and  more  in- 


230  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

decent  in  their  complaints,  than  those  who  compose 
all  the  exterior  part  of  the  present  administration ;  in 
whose  time  that  faction  has  arrived  at  such  a  height 
of  power,  and  of  boldness  in  the  use  of  it,  as  may,  in 
the  end,  perhaps  bring  about  its  total  destruction. 

It  is  true,  that  about  four  years  ago,  during  the 
administration  of  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham,  an 
attempt  was  made  to  carry  on  government  without 
their  concurrence.  However,  this  was  only  a  tran 
sient  cloud;  they  were  hid  but  for  a  moment;  and 
their  constellation  blazed  out  with  greater  brightness, 
and  a  far  more  vigorous  influence,  some  time  after 
it  was  blown  over.  An  attempt  was  at  that  time  made 
(but  without  any  idea  of  proscription)  to  break  their 
corps,  to  discountenance  their  doctrines,  to  revive  con 
nections  of  a  different  kind,  to  restore  the  principles 
and  policy  of  the  Whigs,  to  reanimate  the  cause  of 
liberty  by  ministerial  countenance;  and  then  for  the 
first  time  were  men  seen  attached  in  office  to  every 
principle  they  had  maintained  in  opposition.  No  one 
will  doubt  that  such  men  were  abhorred  and  vio 
lently  opposed  by  the  court  faction,  and  that  such  a 
system  could  have  but  a  short  duration. 

It  may  appear  somewhat  affected  that  in  so  much 
discourse  upon  this  extraordinary  party  I  should  say 
so  little  of  the  Earl  of  Bute,  who  is  the  supposed  head 
of  it.  But  this  was  neither  owing  to  affectation  nor 
inadvertence.  I  have  carefully  avoided  the  introduc 
tion  of  personal  reflections  of  any  kind.  Much  the 
greater  part  of  the  topics  which  have  been  used  to 
blacken  this  nobleman  are  either  unjust  or  frivolous. 


THE  PRESENT  DISCONTENTS  231 

At  best,  they  have  a  tendency  to  give  the  resentment 
of  this  bitter  calamity  a  wrong  direction,  and  to  turn 
a  public  grievance  into  a  mean,  personal,  or  a  danger 
ous  national  quarrel.  Where  there  is  a  regular  scheme 
of  operations  carried  on,  it  is  the  system,  and  not  any 
individual  person  who  acts  in  it,  that  is  truly  danger 
ous.  This  system  has  not  arisen  solely  from  the  ambi 
tion  of  Lord  Bute,  but  from  the  circumstances  which 
favored  it,  and  from  an  indifference  to  the  constitu 
tion  which  had  been  for  some  time  growing  among  our 

gentry. 

#     #     *     #     #     #     * 

We  are  at  present  at  issue  upon  this  point.  We  are 
in  the  great  crisis  of  this  contention;  and  the  part 
which  men  take,  one  way  or  other,  will  serve  to  dis 
criminate  their  characters  and  their  principles.  Until 
the  matter  is  decided,  the  country  will  remain  in  its 
present  confusion.  For  while  a  system  of  adminis 
tration  is  attempted,  entirely  repugnant  to  the  genius 
of  the  people,  and  not  conformable  to  the  plan  of  their 
government,  everything  must  necessarily  be  disor 
dered  for  a  time,  until  this  system  destroys  the  con 
stitution,  or  the  constitution  gets  the  better  of  this 
system. 

There  is,  in  my  opinion,  a  peculiar  venom  and 
malignity  in  this  political  distemper  beyond  any  that 
I  have  heard  or  read  of.  In  former  times  the  projectors 
of  arbitrary  government  attacked  only  the  liberties  of 
their  country;  a  design  surely  mischievous  enough  to 
have  satisfied  a  mind  of  the  most  unruly  ambition. 
But  a  system  unfavorable  to  freedom  may  be  so 


232          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

formed  as  considerably  to  exalt  the  grandeur  of  the 
state ;  and  men  may  find,  in  the  pride  and  splendor  of 
that  prosperity,  some  sort  of  consolation  for  the  loss 
of  their  solid  privileges.  Indeed  the  increase  of  the 
power  of  the  state  has  often  been  urged  by  artful  men 
as  a  pretext  for  some  abridgment  of  the  public  lib 
erty.  But  the  scheme  of  the  junto  under  considera 
tion  not  only  strikes  a  palsy  into  every  nerve  of  our 
free  constitution,  but  in  the  same  degree  benumbs  and 
stupefies  the  whole  executive  power:  rendering  gov 
ernment  in  all  its  grand  operations  languid,  uncertain, 
ineffective;  making  ministers  fearful  of  attempting, 
and  incapable  of  executing,  any  useful  plan  of  domes 
tic  arrangement,  or  of  foreign  politics.  It  tends  to  pro 
duce  neither  the  security  of  a  free  government,  nor 

the  energy  of  a  monarchy  that  is  absolute. 

******* 

It  behooves  the  people  of  England  to  consider  how 
the  House  of  Commons  under  the  operation  of  these 
examples  must  of  necessity  be  constituted.  On  the 
side  of  the  court  will  be  all  honors,  offices,  emoluments, 
every  sort  of  personal  gratification  to  avarice  or  van 
ity  ;  and,  what  is  of  more  moment  to  most  gentlemen, 
the  means  of  growing,  by  innumerable  petty  services 
to  individuals,  into  a  spreading  interest  in  their  coun 
try.  On  the  other  hand,  let  us  suppose  a  person  un 
connected  with  the  court,  and  in  opposition  to  its  sys 
tem.  For  his  own  person  no  office,  or  emolument,  or 
title ;  no  promotion,  ecclesiastical,  or  civil,  or  military, 
or  naval,  for  children,  or  brothers,  or  kindred.  In 
vain  an  expiring  interest  in  a  borough  calls  for  offices, 


THE  PKESENT  DISCONTENTS  233 

or  small  livings,  for  the  children  of  mayors,  and  alder 
men,  and  capital  burgesses.  His  court  rival  has  them 
all.  He  can  do  an  infinite  number  of  acts  of  generos 
ity  and  kindness  and  even  in  public  spirit.  He  can 
procure  indemnity  from  quarters.  He  can  procure 
advantages  in  trade.  He  can  get  pardons  for  offences. 
He  can  obtain  a  thousand  favors,  and  avert  a  thousand 
evils.  He  may,  while  he  betrays  every  valuable  in 
terest  of  the  kingdom,  be  a  benefactor,  a  patron,  a 
father,  a  guardian  angel  to  his  borough.  The  un 
fortunate  independent  member  has  nothing  to  offer 
but  harsh  refusal,  or  pitiful  excuse,  or  despondent 
representation  of  a  hopeless  interest.  Except  from 
his  private  fortune,  in  which  he  may  be  equalled, 
perhaps  exceeded,  by  his  court  competitor,  he  has  no 
way  of  showing  any  one  good  quality,  or  of  making 
a  single  friend.  In  the  House  he  votes  forever  in  a 
dispirited  minority.  If  he  speaks,  the  doors  are  locked. 
A  body  of  loquacious  placemen  go  out  to  tell  the 
world  that  all  he  aims  at  is  to  get  into  office.  If  he 
has  not  the  talent  of  elocution,  which  is  the  case  of 
many  as  wise  and  knowing  men  as  any  in  the  House, 
he  is  liable  to  all  these  inconveniences,  without  the 
eclat  which  attends  upon  any  tolerably  successful  ex 
ertion  of  eloquence.  Can  we  conceive  a  more  discour 
aging  post  of  duty  than  this?  Strip  it  of  the  poor 
reward  of  popularity ;  suffer  even  the  excesses  com 
mitted  in  defense  of  the  popular  interest  to  become 
a  ground  for  the  majority  of  that  House  to  form  a 
disqualification  out  of  the  line  of  the  law,  and  at  their 
pleasure,  attended  not  only  with  the  loss  of  the  fran- 


234          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

chise,  but  with  every  kind  of  personal  disgrace.  If 
this  shall  happen,  the  people  of  this  kingdom  may 
be  assured  that  they  cannot  be  firmly  or  faithfully 
served  by  any  man.  It  is  out  of  the  nature  of  men 
and  things  that  they  should;  and  their  presumption 
will  be  equal  to  their  folly  if  they  expect  it.  The 
power  of  the  people,  within  the  laws,  must  show  itself 
sufficient  to  protect  every  representative  in  the  ani 
mated  performance  of  his  duty,  or  that  duty  cannot 
be  performed.  The  House  of  Commons  can  never  be 
a  control  on  other  parts  of  government,  unless  they 
are  controlled  themselves  by  their  constituents;  and 
unless  these  constituents  possess  some  right  in  the 
choice  of  that  House  which  it  is  not  in  the  power 
of  that  House  to  take  away.  If  they  suffer  this  power 
of  arbitrary  incapacitation  to  stand,  they  have  utterly 
perverted  every  other  power  of  the  House  of  Com 
mons.  The  late  proceeding  I  will  not  say  is  contrary 
to  law ;  it  must  be  so ;  for  the  power  which  is  claimed 
cannot,  by  any  possibility,  be  a  legal  power  in  any 

limited  member  of  government. 

******* 

If  the  reader  believes  that  there  really  exists  such 
a  faction  as  I  have  described — a  faction  ruling  by  the 
private  inclination  of  a  court,  against  the  general  sense 
of  the  people — and  that  this  faction,  whilst  it  pursues 
a  scheme  for  undermining  all  the  foundations  of  our 
freedom,  weakens  (for  the  present  at  least)  all  the 
powers  of  executory  government,  rendering  us  abroad 
contemptible,  and  at  home  distracted ;  he  will  believe 
also  that  nothing  but  a  firm  combination  of  public  men 


THE  PEESENT  DISCONTENTS  235 

against  this  body — and  that,  too,  supported  by  the 
hearty  concurrence  of  the  people  at  large — can  possibly 
get  the  better  of  it.  The  people  will  see  the  necessity  of 
restoring  public  men  to  an  attention  to  the  public 
opinion,  and  of  restoring  the  constitution  to  its  orig 
inal  principles.  Above  all,  they  will  endeavor  to  keep 
that  House  of  Commons  from  assuming  a  character 
which  does  not  belong  to  it.  They  will  endeavor  to 
keep  that  House,  for  its  existence,  for  its  powers,  and 
as  dependent  upon  themselves  as  possible.  This 
servitude  is  to  a  House  of  Commons  (like  obedience 
to  the  Divine  Law)  " perfect  freedom."  For  if  they 
once  quit  this  natural,  rational,  and  liberal  obedience, 
having  deserted  the  only  proper  foundation  of  their 
power,  they  must  seek  a  support  in  an  abject  and  un 
natural  dependence  somewhere  else.  When,  through 
the  medium  of  this  just  connection  with  their  constit 
uents,  the  genuine  ability  of  the  House  of  Commons 
is  restored,  it  will  begin  to  'think  of  casting  from  it, 
with  scorn,  as  badges  of  servility,  all  the  false  orna 
ments  of  illegal  power  with  which  it  has  been  for 
some  time  disgraced.  It  will  begin  to  think  of  its  old 
office  of  Control.  It  will  not  suffer  that  last  of 
evils  to  predominate  in  the  country:  men  without 
popular  confidence,  public  opinion,  natural  connec 
tion,  or  mutual  trust,  invested  with  all  the  powers  of 
government. 

When  they  have  learned  this  lesson  themselves,  they 
will  be  willing  and  able  to  teach  the  court  that  it  is  the 
true  interest  of  the  prince  to  have  but  one  administra 
tion  ;  and  that  one  composed  of  those  who  recommend 


236          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

themselves  to  their  sovereign  through  the  opinion  of 
their  country,  and  not  by  their  obsequiousness  to  a 
favorite.  Such  men  will  serve  their  sovereign  with 
affection  and  fidelity,  because  his  choice  of  them,  upon 
such  principles,  is  a  compliment  to  their  virtue.  They 
will  be  able  to  serve  him  effectually ;  because  they  will 
add  the  weight  of  the  country  to  the  force  of  the 
executory  power.  They  will  be  able  to  serve  their 
king  with  dignity,  because  they  will  never  abuse  his 
name  to  the  gratification  of  their  private  spleen  or 
avarice.  This,  with  allowances  for  human  frailty, 
may  probably  be  the  general  character  of  a  ministry 
which  thinks  itself  accountable  to  the  House  of  Com 
mons  when  the  House  of  Commons  thinks  itself  ac 
countable  to  its  constituents.  If  other  ideals  should 
prevail,  things  must  remain  in  their  present  confusion, 
until  they  are  hurried  into  all  the  rage  of  civil  vio 
lence,  or  until  they  sink  into  the  dead  repose  of 
despotism. 


IV 

BURKE 'S  POWER  AS  AN  ORATOR 

EXTRACTS  FROM  G.  0.  TREVELYAX'S  GEORGE  THE 
THIRD  AND  CHARLES  FOX. 

.  .  .  Before  the  year  (1777)  was  out,  full  particu 
lars  of  the  catastrophe  of  Saratoga  arrived  in  England. 
The  history  of  Burgoyne's  expedition  was  one  long 
object  lesson  on  the  military  value,  and  moral  char 
acteristics,  of  our  Indian  allies;  and  Burke  chose  an 
early  opportunity  for  driving  that  lesson  home  to  the 
conscience  of  Parliament.  He  spoke  for  more  than 
three  hours  to  a  crowded  and  entranced  assembly. 
Strangers,  including  of  course  the  .newspaper  re 
porters,  had  been  rigorously  excluded  from  the  Gal 
lery;  and,  though  Burke  was  urgently  entreated  to 
publish  his  speech,  he  could  not  find  the  leisure,  nor 
perhaps  the  inclination,  to  rekindle  in  the  solitude  of 
his  study  that  flame  of  rhetoric  which  had  blazed  up 
spontaneously  under  the  genial  influence  of  universal 
admiration,  and  all  but  universal  sympathy.  It  was 
generally  allowed  that  he  had  surpassed  all  his  earlier 
performances.  He  left  no  aspect  of  the  question  un 
touched;  he  stated,  in  due  sequence,  every  important 
argument;  and,  when  he  let  his  fancy  loose,  he  tra 
versed  the  whole  scale  of  oratorical  emotion,  from  the 


238          BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

depth  of  pathos  to  the  height  of  unrestrained,  auda 
cious,  and  quite  irresistible  humor. 

Burke  began  by  laying  the  solid  foundation  for  his 
case  in  a  series  of  closely-reasoned  passages  of  which 
only  the  outlines  remain  on  record.  These  Indian 
tribes,  he  said,  had  in  the  course  of  years  been  so 
reduced  in  number  and  power  that  they  were  now  only 
formidable  from  their  cruelty,  and  to  use  them  for 
warlike  purposes  was  merely  to  be  cruel  ourselves  in 
their  persons.  He  called  attention  to  the  salient  dis 
tinction  between  their  employment  "against  armed 
and  trained  soldiers,  embodied  and  encamped,  and 
against  unarmed  and  defenseless  men,  women,  and 
children,  dispersed  in  their  several  habitations"  over 
the  whole  extent  of  a  prosperous  and  industrious  dis 
trict.  He  attributed  Burgoyne's  defeat  to  the  horror 
excited  in  the  American  mind  by  the  prospect  of  an 
Indian  invasion.  The  manly  and  resolute  determina 
tion  of  the  New  England  farmers  to  save  their  families 
and  their  homesteads  from  these  barbarians  led  them 
"without  regard  to  party,  or  to  political  principle,  and 
in  despite  of  military  indisposition,  to  become  sol 
diers,  and  to  unite  as  one  man  in  the  common  defense. 
Thus  was  the  spectacle  exhibited  of  a  resistless  army 
springing  up  in  the  woods  and  deserts. ' '  Indians,  said 
Burke,  were  the  most  useless,  and  the  most  expensive, 
of  all  auxiliaries.  Each  of  their  so-called  braves  cost 
as  much  as  five  of  the  best  European  musketeers ;  and, 
after  eating  double  rations  so  long  as  the  provisions 
lasted,  they  kept  out  of  sight  on  a  day  of  battle,  and 
deserted  wholesale  at  the  first  appearance  of  ill-sue- 


BURKE 'S  POWER  AS  AN  ORATOR      239 

cess.  They  were  not  less  faithless  than  inefficacious. 
When  Colonel  St.  Leger  found  himself  in  difficulties 
they  turned  their  weapons,  with  insolent  treachery, 
against  their  civilized  comrades ;  and  over  a  circuit  of 
many  miles  around  Burgoyne  's  camp  they  plundered, 
and  butchered,  and  scalped  with  entire  indifference  to 
the  sex,  the  age,  and  the  political  opinions  of  their 
victims.  Burke  told  the  story  of  a  poor  Scotch  girl's 
murder,  on  the  eve  of  her  intended  marriage  to  an 
officer  of  the  King's  troops,  with  an  effect  on  the  nerves 
of  his  audience  which  perhaps  was  never  equalled 
except  by  his  own  description,  during  the  trial  of  War 
ren  Hastings,  of  the  treatment  inflicted  by  the  Nabob 
Vizier  on  the  Oude  princesses.  Many  of  his  hearers 
were  moved  to  tears — a  spectacle  which,  in  the  British 
Parliament,  is  seen  hardly  once  in  a  generation ;  and 
Governor  Johnstone  congratulated  the  Ministry  that 
there  were  no  strangers  in  the  Gallery,  because  they 
would  have  been  worked  up  to  such  a  pitch  of  excite 
ment  that  Lord  North,  and  Lord  George  Germaine, 
must  have  run  a  serious  risk  from  popular  violence 
as  soon  as  they  emerged  into  the  street  from  the  sanc 
tuary  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

And  then  Burke  changed  his  note,  and  convulsed  his 
audience  by  a  parody  of  Burgoyne 's  address  to  the 
Indians.  It  was  a  passage  which  Horace  Walpole,  who 
had  collected  his  knowledge  of  it  in  detached  morsels 
from  many  sources,  pronounced  to  be  a  chef-d'oeuvre 
of  wit,  humor,  and  just  satire.  "I  wish,"  he  wrote, 
' '  I  could  give  an  idea  of  that  superlative  oration.  How 
cold,  how  inadequate  will  be  my  fragment  of  a  sketch 


240  BURKE  'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

from  second,  third,  and  thousandth  hands!"  Burke 
related  how  the  British  general  harangued  a  throng 
of  warriors  drawn  from  seventeen  separate  Indian 
nations,  who,  so  far  from  understanding  the  Bur- 
goynese  dialect,  could  not  even  follow  the  meaning  of 
a  speech  made  in  plain  English ;  how  he  invited  them — 
by  their  reverence  for  the  Christian  religion,  and  theii 
well-known,  and  well-considered,  views  on  the  right  of 
taxation  inherent  in  the  Parliament  at  Westminster — 
to  grasp  their  tomahawks,  and  rally  round  his  Ma 
jesty's  standard;  and  how  he  adjured  them,  "by  the 
same  divine  and  human  laws, ' '  not  to  touch  a  hair  on 
the  head  of  man,  woman,  or  child  while  living,  though 
he  was  willing  to  deal  with  them  for  scalps  of  the 
dead,  inasmuch  as  he  was  a  nice  and  distinguished 
judge  between  the  scalp  taken  from  a  dead  person, 
and  from  the  head  of  a  person  who  had  died  of  being 
scalped.  ' '  Let  us  illustrate  this  Christian  exhortation, 
and  Christian  injunction,"  said  Burke,  "by  a  more 
familiar  picture.  Suppose  the  case  of  a  riot  on  Tower 
Hill.  What  would  the  keeper  of  his  Majesty's  lions 
do?  Would  he  not  leave  open  the  dens  of  the  wild 
beasts  and  address  them  thus:  'My  gentle  lions,  my 
humane  bears,  my  tender-hearted  hyenas,  go  forth 
against  the  seditious  mob  on  your  mission  of  repres 
sion  and  retribution;  but  I  exhort  you  as  you  are 
Christians,  and  members  of  a  civilized  society,  to  take 
care  not  to  hurt  man,  woman,  or  child. '  :  Burke,  like 
Mr.  Gladstone  after  him,  was  said  to  be  deficient  in 
humor ;  but  a  great  orator  depends  for  his  lighter  ef 
fects  not  on  a  store  of  prepared  jests  and  epigrams,  but 


BURKE 'S  POWER  AS  AN  ORATOR       241 

on  the  unforced  gaiety  by  which  he  himself  is  swayed 
at  the  moment,  and  which  he  has  the  art  and  the  power 
to  diffuse  among  his  hearers.  The  walls  of  the  chamber 
fairly  shook  with  applause;  Lord  North  himself  ''was 
almost  suffocated  by  laughter";  and  Colonel  Barre 
declared  that,  if  Burke  would  only  print  the  speech,  he, 
on  his  part,  would  undertake  that  it  should  be  nailed 
to  the  door  of  every  parish  church  beneath  the  notice 
proclaiming  a  day  of  general  fasting  and  humiliation 
on  account  of  the  surrender  of  Saratoga.  That  speech 
would  explain,  far  better  than  the  homily  of  any 
courtly  bishop,  the  real  causes  of  the  disaster  which 

had  brought  the  nation  to  dust  and  ashes. 

******* 

•,.  .  .  The  reception  accorded  to  Edmund  Burke 's 
exposition  of  his  plan  of  Economical  Reform  was  of  a 
nature  which  left  him  nothing  to  desire.  An  immense 
crowd  of  members  sat  and  stood,  listening,  and  learn 
ing,  and  enjoying  while  he  rolled  out  his  vivid  and 
picturesque,  but  most  accurate  and  businesslike,  cata 
logue  of  financial  abuses,  and  while  he  descanted  upon 
their  intimate  relation  to  the  good  fame  and  efficiency 
of  Parliament.  .  .  .  After  holding  his  audience 
during  more  than  three  hours  he  wound  up  what  he 
had  to  say  with  a  few  unadorned  sentences,  pitched  in 
a  quiet  strain ;  and,  when  Edmund  Burke  spoke  calmly 
and  simply  under  the  stress  of  deep  emotion,  his 
words  always  possessed  a  strange  and  mysterious 
charm.  The  House  remained  spell-bound.  Fox  took 
off  his  hat  to  second  the  motion.  North,  embarrassed, 
and  a  great  deal  more  than  half-convinced,  stated  it 


242  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

as  his  belief  that  no  other  gentleman  could  have  been 
equal  to  the  task  so  ably  performed  by  the  Honorable 
Member,  *  *  although  he  had  the  happiness  to  know  that 
there  were  many  then  present  who  had  very  brilliant 
parts."  .  .  .  Burke  approached  the  subject  in  a 
spirit  of  high  comedy.  He  professed  a  desire  to  res 
cue  a  company  of  eminent  writers  from  dry  and  irk 
some  functions  which  distracted  them  from  loftier 
studies,  and  more  congenial  labors.  As  an  Academy 
of  Belles  Lettres,  he  said,  he  held  them  hallowed.  As 
a  Board  of  Trade  he  wished  to  abolish  them.  That 
Board,  to  his  view,  was  a  crow's  nest  in  which  night 
ingales  were  kept  prisoners;  and  his  design  was  to 
restore  the  nightingales  to  their  liberty  in  the  hope 
that  they  might  sing  the  more  delightfully.  Aroused 
by  the  sympathy  and  applause  of  his  audience,  wrhich 
has  often  inspired  lesser  men,  Burke  positively  reveled 
in  the  freedom  and  license  of  committee.  He  spoke 
as  often  as  he  chose,  and  each  successive  apologist  for 
the  Board  of  Trade  was  overwhelmed  by  the  exuber 
ance  of  his  diction  and  imagination,  and  the  irresist 
ible  play  of  his  satire.  "I  can  never,"  so  Gibbon 
confessed,  ' '  forget  the  delight  with  which  that  diffu 
sive  and  ingenious  orator  was  heard  by  ail  sides  of 
the  House,  and  even  by  those  whose  existence  he  pro 
scribed.  The  Lords  of  Trade  blushed  at  their  own 
insignificancy;  and  Mr.  Eden's  appeal  to  the  thousand 
five  hundred  volumes  of  our  reports  served  only  to 
excite  a  general  laugh. "  At  a  quarter  past  two  in  the 
morning  the  Committee  at  length  divided,  and  voted 
for  abolishing  the  Board  by  two  hundred  and  seven 
as  against  a  hundred  and  ninety-nine. 


SPEECH   OF  WILLIAM  PITT,  THE   EARL  OF 
CHATHAM 

IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  LORDS,  JANUARY  20,  1775,  MOVING  AN 
ADDRESS  TO  HIS  MAJESTY  FOR  THE  IMMEDIATE  REMOVAL 
OF  HIS  TROOPS  FROM  BOSTON. 

I  congratulate  your  Lordships  that  the  business  is 
at  last  entered  upon  by  the  noble  Lord's  laying  the 
papers  before  you.  As  I  suppose  your  Lordships  too 
well  apprised  of  their  contents,  I  hope  I  am  not  pre 
mature  in  submitting  to  you  my  present  motion : 

That  an  humble  address  be  presented  to  his  Majesty, 
humbly  to  desire  and  beseech  his  Majesty  that  in  order 
to  open  the  way  towards  a  happy  settlement  of  the 
dangerous  troubles  in  America,  by  beginning  to  allay 
ferments  and  soften  animosities  there,  and  above  all 
for  preventing  in  the  meantime  any  sudden  and  fatal 
catastrophe  at  Boston,  now  suffering  under  the  daily 
irritation  of  an  army  before  their  eyes,  posted  in  their 
town,  it  may  graciously  please  his  Majesty  that  imme 
diate  orders  be  despatched  to  General  Gage  for  remov 
ing  his  Majesty's  forces  from  the  town  of  Boston  as 
soon  as  the  rigor  of  the  season  and  other  circumstances 
indispensable  to  the  safety  and  accommodation  of  the 
said  troops  may  render  the  same  practicable. 

243 


244  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

I  wish,  my  Lords,  not  to  lose  a  day  in  this  urgent, 
pressing  crisis ;  an  hour  now  lost  in  allaying  ferments 
in  America  may  produce  years  of  calamity.  For  my 
own  part,  I  will  not  desert,  for  a  moment,  the  conduct 
of  this  weighty  business,  from  the  first  to  the  last; 
unless  nailed  to  my  bed  by  the  extremity  of  sickness, 
I  will  give  it  unremitted  attention ;  I  will  knock  at  the 
door  of  this  sleeping  and  confounded  Ministry,  and 
will  rouse  them  to  a  sense  of  their  important  danger. 

When  I  state  the  importance  of  the  colonies  to  this 
country,  and  the  magnitude  of  the  danger  hanging 
over  this  country,  from  the  present  plan  of  mis-admin 
istration  practiced  against  them,  I  desire  not  to  be 
understood  to  argue  for  a  reciprocity  of  indulgence 
between  England  and  America.  I  contend  not  for 
indulgence,  but  for  justice  to  America;  and  I  shall 
ever  contend  that  the  Americans  justly  owe  obedience 
to  us  in  a  limited  degree,— ^they  owe  obedience  to  our 
ordinances  of  trade  and  navigation.  But  let  the  line 
be  skilfully  drawn  between  the  objects  of  those  ordi 
nances  and  their  private,  internal  property;  let  the 
sacredness  of  their  property  remain  inviolate;  let  it 
be  taxable  only  by  their  own  consent,  given  in  their 
provincial  assemblies,  else  it  will  cease  to  be  property. 
As  to  the  metaphysical  refinements,  attempting  to  show 
that  the  Americans  are  equally  free  from  obedience 
and  commercial  restraints  as  from  taxation  for  rev 
enue,  as  being  unrepresented  here,  I  pronounce  them 
futile,  frivolous,  and  groundless. 

When  I  urge  this  measure  of  recalling  the  troops 
from  Boston,  I  urge  it  on  this  pressing  principle,  that 


SPEECHES  OF  WILLIAM  PITT  245 

it  is  necessarily  preparatory  to  the  restoration  of  your 
peace,  and  the  establishment  of  your  prosperity.  It 
will  then  appear  that  you  are  disposed  to  treat  am 
icably  and  equitably,  and  to  consider,  revise,  and  re 
peal,  if  it  should  be  found  necessary,  as  I  affirm  it  will, 
those  violent  acts  and  declarations  which  have  dis 
seminated  confusion  throughout  your  empire. 

Resistance  to  your  acts  was  necessary  as  it  was  just ; 
and  your  vain  declarations  of  the  omnipotence  of 
Parliament,  and  your  imperious  doctrines  of  the  neces 
sity  of  submission,  will  be  found  equally  impotent  to 
convince  or  to  enslave  your  fellow-subjects  in  Amer 
ica,  who  feel  that  tyranny,  whether  ambitioned  by  an 
individual  part  of  the  legislature  or  the  bodies  who 
compose  it,  is  equally  intolerable  to  British  subjects. 

The  means  of  enforcing  this  thraldom  are  found  to 
be  as  ridiculous  and  weak  in  practice  as  they  are  un 
just  in  principle.  Indeed,  I  cannot  but  feel  the  most 
anxious  sensibility  for  the  situation  of  General  Gage 
and  the  troops  under  his  command ;  thinking  him,  as 
I  do,  a  man  of  humanity  and  understanding;  and 
entertaining,  as  I  ever  will,  the  highest  respect,  the 
warmest  love,  for  the  British  troops.  Their  situation 
is  truly  unworthy,  penned  up  pining  in  inglorious 
inactivity.  They  are  an  army  of  impotence.  You  may 
call  them  an  army  of  safety  and  of  guard;  but  they 
are  in  truth  an  army  of  impotence  and  contempt; 
and  to  make  the  folly  equal  to  the  disgrace,  they  are 
an  army  of  irritation  and  vexation. 

But  I  find  a  report  creeping  abroad  that  Ministers 
censure  General  Gage's  inactivity:  let  them  censure 


246  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

him — it  becomes  them — it  becomes  their  justice  and 
their  honor.  I  mean  not  to  censure  his  inactivity: 
it  is  a  prudent  and  necessary  inaction.  But  what  a 
miserable  condition  is  that  where  disgrace  is  prudence 
and  where  it  is  necessary  to  be  contemptible !  This 
tameness,  however  contemptible,  cannot  be  censured; 
for  the  first  drop  of  blood  shed  in  civil  and  unnatural 
war  might  be  immedicabile  vulnus. 

I  therefore  urge  and  conjure  your  Lordships  im 
mediately  to  adopt  this  conciliating  measure.  I  will 
pledge  myself  for  its  immediately  producing  concil 
iatory  effects  by  its  being  thus  well-timed ;  but  if  you 
delay  till  your  vain  hope  shall  be  accomplished,  of 
triumphantly  dictating  reconciliation,  you  delay  for 
ever.  But,  admitting  that  this  hope,  which  in  truth 
is  desperate,  should  be  accomplished,  what  do  you  gain 
by  the  imposition  of  your  victorious  amity  ?  You  will 
be  untrusted  and  unthanked.  Adopt,  then,  the  grace, 
while  you  have  the  opportunity  of  reconcilement,  or 
at  least  prepare  the  way.  Allay  the  ferment  prevail 
ing  in  America  by  removing,  the  obnoxious,  hostile 
cause — obnoxious  and  unserviceable,  for  their  merit 
can  be  only  in  inaction:  Non  dimicare  est  vincere — 
their  victory  can  never  be  by  exertions.  Their  force 
would  be  most  disproportionately  exerted  against  a 
brave,  generous,  and  united  people,  with  arms  in  their 
hands  and  courage  in  their  hearts — three  millions  of 
people,  the  genuine  descendants  of  a  valiant  and  pious 
ancestry,  driven  to  those  deserts  by  the  narrow  max 
ims  of  a  superstitious  tyranny.  And  is  the  spirit  of 
persecution  never  to  be  appeased  ?  Are  the  brave  sons 


SPEECHES  OF  WILLIAM  PITT  247 

of  those  brave  forefathers  to  inherit  the  sufferings,  as 
they  have  inherited  their  virtues  ?  Are  they  to  sustain 
the  infliction  of  the  most  oppressive  and  unexampled 
severity,  beyond  the  accounts  of  history  or  descrip 
tion  of  poetry  ?  Rhadamanthus  habet  durissima  regna, 
castigatque,  AUDITQUE.  So  says  the  wisest  poet, 
and  perhaps  the  wisest  statesman  and  politician  of 
antiquity.  But  our  Ministers  say,  the  Americans  must 
not  be  heard.  They  have  been  condemned  unheard; 
the  discriminating  hand  of  vengeance  has  lumped  to 
gether  innocent  and  guilty ;  writh  all  the  formalities  of 
hostility  has  blocked  up  the  town,  and  reduced  to  beg 
gary  and  famine  thirty  thousand  inhabitants. 

But  his  Majesty  is  advised  that  the  union  in  Amer 
ica  cannot  last !  Ministers  have  more  eyes  than  I,  and 
should  have  more  ears,  but,  with  all  the  information 
I  have  been  able  to  procure,  I  can  pronounce  it — an 
union  solid,  permanent,  and  effectual.  Ministers  may 
satisfy  themselves,  and  delude  the  public,  with  the  re 
port  of  what  they  call  commercial  bodies  in  America. 
They  are  not  commercial ;  they  are  your  packers  and 
factors :  they  live  upon  nothing — for  I  call  commission 
nothing.  I  mean  the  Ministerial  authority  for  this 
American  intelligence;  the  runners  for  Government, 
who  are  paid  for  their  intelligence.  But  these  are  not 
the  men,  nor  this  the  influence,  to  be  considered  in 
America,  when  we  estimate  the  firmness  of  their  union : 
even  to  extend  the  question,  and  to  take  in  the  really 
mercantile  circle,  will  be  totally  inadequate  to  the 
consideration.  Trade,  indeed,  increases  the  wealth 
and  glory  of  a  country;  but  its  real  strength  and 


248          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

stamina  are  to  be  looked  for  among  the  cultivators  of 
the  land.  In  their  simplicity  of  life  is  found  the  sim- 
pleness  of  virtue — the  integrity  and  courage  of  free 
dom.  These  true,  genuine  sons  of  the  earth  are  in 
vincible  ;  and  they  surround  and  hem  in  the  mercantile 
bodies ;  even  if  these  bodies,  which  supposition  I  totally 
disclaim,  could  be  supposed  disaffected  to  the  cause 
of  liberty.  Of  this  general  spirit  existing  in  the  Brit 
ish  nation — for  so  I  wish  to  distinguish  the  real  and 
genuine  Americans  from  the  pseudo-traders  I  have  de 
scribed — of  this  spirit  of  independence,  animating 
the  nation  of  America,  I  have  the  most  authentic  in-, 
formation.  It  is  not  new  among  them ;  it  is,  and  has 
ever  been,  their  established  principle,  their  confirmed 
persuasion ;  it  is  their  nature  and  their  doctrine. 

I  remember,  some  years  ago,  when  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act  was  in  agitation,  conversing  in  a  friendly 
confidence  with  a  person  of  undoubted  respect  and 
authenticity,  on  that  subject ;  and  he  assured  me,  with 
a  certainty  which  his  judgment  and  opportunity  gave 
him,  that  these  were  the  prevalent  and  steady  princi 
ples  of  America — that  you  might  destroy  their  towns, 
and  cut  them  off  from  the  superfluities,  and  perhaps 
the  conveniences,  of  life ;  but  that  they  were  prepared 
to  despise  your  power,  and  would  not  lament  their  loss, 
whilst  they  had — what,  my  Lords? — their  woods  and 
their  liberty.  The  name  of  my  authority,  if  I  am 
called  upon,  will  authenticate  the  opinion  irrefrag- 
ably. 

If  illegal  violences  have  been,  as  it  is  said,  committed 
in  America,  prepare  the  way — open  the  door  of  pos- 


SPEECHES  OF  WILLIAM  PITT  249 

sibility  for  acknowledgment  and  satisfaction;  but 
proceed  not  to  such  coercion,  such  proscription ;  cease 
your  indiscriminate  inflictions;  amerce  not  thirty 
thousand ;  oppress  not  three  millions,  for  the  fault  of 
forty  or  fifty.  Such  severity  of  injustice  must  forever 
render  incurable  the  wounds  you  have  already  given 
your  colonies.  You  irritate  them  to  unappeasable 
rancor.  What  though  you  march  from  town  to  town 
and  from  province  to  province ;  though  you  should  be 
able  to  enforce  a  temporary  and  local  submission — 
which  I  only  suppose,  not  admit — how  shall  you  be 
able  to  secure  the  obedience  of  the  country  you  leave 
behind  you  in  your  progress,  to  grasp  the  dominion  of 
eighteen  hundred  miles  of  continent,  populous  in  num 
bers,  possessing  valor,  liberty,  and  resistance? 

This  resistance  to  your  arbitrary  system  of  taxation 
might  have  been  foreseen.  It  was  obvious,  from  the 
nature  of  things  and  of  mankind ;  and,  above  all,  from 
the  Whiggish  spirit  flourishing  in  that  country.  The 
spirit  which  now  resists  your  taxation  in  America  is 
the  same  which  formerly  opposed  loans,  benevolences, 
and  ship-money  in  England — the  same  spirit  which 
called  all  England  on  its  legs,  and  by  the  Bill  of  Rights 
vindicated  the  English  constitution;  the  same  spirit 
which  established  the  great,  fundamental,  essential 
maxim  of  your  liberties,  that  no  subject  of  England 
shall  be  taxed  but  by  his  own  consent. 

This  glorious  spirit  of  Whiggism  animates  three 
millions  in  America,  who  prefer  poverty  with  liberty 
to  gilded  chains  and  sordid  affluence ;  and  who  will  die 
in  defense  of  their  rights  as  men,  as  freemen.  "What 


250          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

shall  oppose  this  spirit,  aided  by  the  congenial  flame 
glowing  in  the  breasts  of  every  Whig  in  England,  to 
the  amount,  I  hope,  of  double  the  American  numbers  ? 
Ireland  they  have  to  a  man.  In  that  country,  joined  as 
it  is  with  the  cause  of  the  colonies,  and  placed  at  their 
head,  the  distinction  I  contend  for  is  and  must  be 
observed.  This  country  superintends  and  controls 
their  trade  and  navigation ;  but  they  tax  themselves. 
And  this  distinction  between  external  and  internal 
control  is  sacred  and  insurmountable;  it  is  involved 
in  the  abstract  nature  of  things.  Property  is  private, 
individual,  absolute.  Trade  is  an  extended  and  com 
plicated  consideration.  It  reaches  as  far  as  ships  can 
sail  or  winds  can  blow ;  it  is  a  great  and  various  ma 
chine.  To  regulate  the  numberless  movements  of  its 
several  parts,  and  combine  them  into  effect,  for  the 
good  of  the  whole,  requires  the  superintending  wisdom 
and  energy  of  the  supreme  power  in  the  empire.  But 
this  supreme  power  has  no  effect  towards  internal 
taxation ;  for  it  does  not  exist  in  that  relation.  There 
is  no  such  thing,  no  such  idea  in  this  constitution,  as  a 
supreme  power  operating  upon  property.  Let  this 
distinction  then  remain  forever  ascertained;  taxation 
is  theirs,  commercial  regulation  is  ours.  As  an  Amer 
ican,  I  would  recognize  to  England  her  supreme  right 
of  regulating  commerce  and  navigation ;  as  an  English 
man  by  birth  and  principle,  I  recognize  to  the  Ameri 
cans  their  supreme  unalienable  right  in  their  property, 
a  right  in  which  they  are  justified  in  the  defense  of  to 
the  last  extremity.  To  maintain  this  principle  is  the 
common  cause  of  the  Whigs  on  the  other  side  of  the 


SPEECHES  OF  WILLIAM  PITT  251 

Atlantic  and  on  this.  "  'Tis  liberty  to  liberty  en 
gaged,"  that  they  will  defend  themselves,  their  fam 
ilies,  and  their  country.  In  this  great  cause  they  are 
immovably  allied.  It  is  the  alliance  of  God  and  nature 
—  immutable,  eternal  —  fixed  as  the  firmament  of 
heaven. 

To  such  united  force,  what  force  shall  be  opposed  ? 
What,  my  Lords  ?  A  few  regiments  in  America,  and 
seventeen  or  eighteen  thousand  men  at  home.  The 
idea  is  too  ridiculous  to  take  up  a  moment  of  your 
Lordships'  time.  Nor  can  such  a  national  and  princi 
pled  union  be  resisted  by  the  tricks  of  office,  of  min 
isterial  maneuver.  Laying  of  papers  on  your  table, 
or  counting  numbers  on  a  division,  will  not  avert  or 
postpone  the  hour  of  danger ;  it  must  arrive,  my  Lords, 
unless  these  fatal  acts  are  done  away;  it  must  arrive 
in  all  its  horrors,  and  then  these  boastful  Ministers, 
spite  of  all  their  confidence  and  all  their  maneuvers, 
shall  be  forced  to  hide  their  heads.  They  shall  be 
forced  to  a  disgraceful  abandonment  of  their  present 
measures  and  principles — principles  which  they  avow, 
but  cannot  defend;  measure  which  they  presume  to 
attempt,  but  cannot  hope  to  effectuate.  They  cannot, 
my  Lords,  they  cannot  stir  a  step;  they  have  not  a 
move  left;  they  are  checkmated. 

But  it  is  not  repealing  this  or  that  act  of  Parliament, 
it  is  not  repealing  a  piece  of  parchment,  that  can  re 
store  America  to  our  bosom.  You  must  repeal  her 
fears  and  her  resentments;  and  you  may  then  hope 
for  her  love  and  gratitude.  But  now,  insulted  with 
an  armed  force  posted  at  Boston,  irritated  with  an 


252          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

hostile  array  before  her  eyes,  her  concessions,  if  you 
could  force  them,  would  be  suspicious  and  insecure; 
they  will  be  irato  animo;  they  will  not  be  the  sound, 
honorable  pactions  of  freemen ;  they  will  be  the  dictates 
of  fear,  and  the  extortions  of  force.  But  it  is  more 
than  evident  that  you  cannot  force  them,  principled 
and  united  as  they  are,  to  your  unworthy  terms  of  sub 
mission  ;  it  is  impossible :  and,  when  I  hear  General 
Gage  censured  for  inactivity,  I  must  retort  with  indig 
nation  on  those  whose  intemperate  measures  and  im 
provident  counsels  have  betrayed  him  into  his  present 
situation.  His  situation  reminds  me,  my  Lords,  of  the 
answer  of  a  French  General  in  the  Civil  Wars  of 
France;  Monsieur  Conde,  opposed  to  Monsieur  Tur- 
enne,  was  asked  how  it  happened  that  he  did  not  take 
his  adversary  prisoner,  as  he  was  often  very  near  him ; 
* '  J  'ai  peur, ' '  replied  Conde,  very  honestly,  * '  j  'ai  peur 
qu'il  ne  me  prenne," — I'm  afraid  he'll  take  me. 

When  your  Lordships  look  at  the  papers  transmitted 
to  us  from  America,  when  you  consider  their  decency, 
firmness,  and  wisdom,  you  cannot  but  respect  their 
cause,  and  wish  to  make  it  your  own.  For  myself,  I 
must  declare  and  avow  that  in  all  my  reading  and 
observation — and  it  has  been  my  favorite  study;  I 
have  read  Thucydides,  and  have  studied  and  admired 
the  master-states  of  the  world — that  for  solidity  of 
reasoning,  force  of  sagacity,  and  wisdom  of  conclusion, 
under  such  a  complication  of  difficult  circumstances, 
no  nation,  or  body  of  men,  can  stand  in  preference  to 
the  General  Congress  of  Philadelphia.  I  trust  it  is 
obvious  to  your  Lordships  that  all  attempts  to  impose 


SPEECHES  OF  WILLIAM  PITT  253 

servitude  upon  such  men,  to  establish  despotism  over 
such  a  mighty  continental  nation,  must  be  vain,  must 
be  fatal.  We  shall  be  forced  ultimately  to  retract; 
let  us  retract  while  we  can,  not  when  we  must.  I  say 
we  must  necessarily  undo  these  violent  oppressive 
acts;  they  must  be  repealed.  You  will  repeal  them; 
I  pledge  myself  for  it,  that  you  will  in  the  end  repeal 
them ;  I  stake  my  reputation  on  it.  I  will  consent  to 
be  taken  for  an  idiot  if  they  are  not  finally  repealed. 
Avoid,  then,  this  humiliating,  this  disgraceful  neces 
sity.  With  the  dignity  becoming  your  exalted  situa 
tion  make  the  first  advances  to  concord,  to  peace,  and 
to  happiness ;  for  that  is  your  true  dignity,  to  act  with 
prudence  and  justice.  That  you  should  first  concede 
is  obvious,  from  sound  and  rational  policy.  Conces 
sion  comes  with  better  grace  and  more  salutary  effect 
from  the  superior  power;  it  reconciles  superiority  of 
power  with  the  feelings  of  men ;  and  establishes  solid 
confidence  on  the  foundations  of  affection  and  grati 
tude. 

So  thought  a  wise  poet  and  a  wise  man  in  political 
sagacity;  the  friend  of  Maecenas,  and  the  eulogist  of 
Augustus.  To  him,  the  adopted  son  and  successor  of 
the  first  Caesar;  to  him,  the  master  of  the  world,  he 
wisely  urged  this  conduct  of  prudence  and  dignity: 

Tuque  prior,  tu  parce;   genus  qui  duels  Olympo; 
Pro j ice  tela  manu. 

Every  motive,  therefore,  of  justice  and  of  policy,  of 
dignity  and  of  prudence,  urges  you  to  allay  the  fer 
ment  in  America — by  a  removal  of  your  troops  from 


254  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

Boston,  by  a  repeal  of  your  acts  of  Parliament,  and  by 
demonstration  of  amicable  dispositions  towards  your 
colonies.  On  the  other  hand,  every  danger  and  every 
hazard  impend,  to  deter  you  from  perseverance  in 
your  present  ruinous  measures — foreign  war  hanging 
over  your  heads  by  a  slight  and  brittle  thread,  France 
and  Spain  watching  your  conduct,  and  waiting  for  the 
maturity  of  your  errors,  with  a  vigilant  eye  to  Amer 
ica,  and  the  temper  of  your  colonies,  more  than  to  their 
own  concerns,  be  they  what  they  may. 

To  conclude,  my  Lords:  if  the  Ministers  thus  per 
severe  in  misadvising  and  misleading  the  King,  I  will 
not  say  that  they  can  alienate  the  affections  of  his 
subjects  from  his  crown;  but  I  will  affirm  that  they 
will  make  the  crown  not  worth  his  wearing.  I  will 
not  say  that  the  King  is  betrayed ;  but  I  will  pronounce 
that  the  kingdom  is  undone. 

FROM  SPEECH  OF  PITT,  Nov.  1777 

I  love  and  honor  the  British  troops ;  I  know  their 
virtue  and  their  valor ;  I  know  they  can  achieve  any 
thing  except  impossibilities.  And  the  conquest  of 
English  America  is  an  impossibility.  You  cannot — I 
venture  to  say  it — you  cannot  conquer  America.  .  . 
.  You  may  swell  every  expense  and  every  effort  still 
more  extravagantly,  pile  and  accumulate  every  assis 
tance  you  can  buy  or  barter,  traffic  and  barter  with 
every  little  pitiful  German  Prince  that  sells  and  sends 
his  subjects  to  the  shambles  of  a  foreign  country — 
your  efforts  are  forever  vain  and  impotent.  Doubly  so 


SPEECHES  OF  WILLIAM  PITT  255 

from  this  mercenary  aid  on  which  you  rely ;  for  it  irri 
tates,  to  an  incurable  resentment,  the  minds  of  your 
enemies — to  over-run  them  with  the  sordid  sons  of 
rapine  and  plunder,  devoting  them  and  their  posses 
sions  to  the  rapacity  of  hireling  cruelty!  If  I  were 
an  American,  as  I  am  an  Englishman,  while  a  foreign 
troop  was  landed  in  my  country  I  would  never  lay 
down  my  arms,  never !  never !  never ! 


VI 

EXCERPTS  FROM  THE  SPEECHES  OF 
CHARLES  JAMES  FOX 

[The  Ministers  tried  every  expedient  to  divert  Fox 
from  his  purpose.  Welbore  Ellis  was  put  up  to  cajole 
and  entreat,  and  Thurlow  to  bully;  but  Fox  replied 
that  no  power  on  earth  'should  induce  him  to  withdraw 
his  motion.  "He  was  satisfied"  (so  the  report  runs) 
t '  that  the  House  would  never  consent  to  their'  own  deg 
radation  and  disgrace  in  the  person  of  their  Speaker, 
nor  would  contradict  on  a  Friday  what  they  had  ap 
proved  on  the  Wednesday  immediately  preceding. 
It  had  been  said  that  the  speech  was  not  grammar.  If 
the  speech  was  not  grammar,  it  abounded  in  good  sense, 
and  conveyed  the  true,  unbiased  sense  of  the  House, 
and  of  every  man  on  either  side  who  had  not  been 
bought  over  to  a  sacrifice  of  his  principles  and  his  con 
science."  The  fire  and  sincerity  of  the  young  orator 
swept  the  air  clear,  and  aroused  cordial  enthusiasm 
in  the  virtuous  and  the  honest,  and  a  touch  of  peni 
tence  in  some  who  had  dallied  with  corruption.  Rigby 
himself  was  cowed,  and  grumbled  out  the  semblance 
of  an  apology ;  Fox  saw  his  Resolution  passed  without 
a  division ;  and  then,  on  the  motion  of  an  independent 
member,  the  thanks  of  the  House  were  specifically 
and  unanimously  voted  to  Mr.  Speaker  for  his  speech 

256 


SPEECHES  OF  CHARLES  FOX        257 

to  His  Majesty.  That  was  the  first  defeat  inflicted 
upon  the  Court  in  the  memorable  series  of  parliamen 
tary  campaigns  which  was  now  opening.1] 

FROM  SPEECH  IN  PARLIAMENT,  FEBRUARY  2, 1778 

.  .  .  There  was  another  circumstance,  which  tended 
to  mislead  the  House,  and  for  which  the  Ministers  and 
not  the  House  were  entirely  to  blame,  and  that  was  the 
partial  manner  in  which  they  laid  papers  before  the 
House ;  they  laid  the  accounts  of  facts,  but  no  opinions 
of  people  upon  the  spot  as  to  the  extent  of  the  resist 
ance,  the  temper  of  the  people,  or  any  other  circum 
stance  concerning  it. 

Now,  Sir,  if  men  are  endued  with  passions,  if  they 
are  not  mere  machines,  the  knowledge  of  facts  is  noth 
ing,  unless  it  is  accompanied  with  the  springs  and  mo 
tives  from  whence  such  motives  proceeded.  Suppose, 
for  instance,  a  person  in  a  distant  country  had  no  other 
way  of  judging  of  the  temper  of  this  House  and  of  the 
motives  of  their  conduct,  but  from  our  printed  votes ; 
could  such  a  man  form  any  judgment  of  the  reasons 
why  such  a  line  of  conduct  was  approved,  and  why 
such  a  one  was  rejected  ?  Sir,  it  would  be  ridiculous 
in  the  extreme  to  suppose  it.  Now,  Sir,  I  will  venture 
to  affirm,  that  this  House  was  not,  in  the  year  1775, 
informed  of  the  spirit  of  opposition  there  was  in 
America,  and  of  their  prejudices  against  taxation.  If 
they  had,  I  should  hope  they  would  have  thought  it 
wise,  if  not  just,  to  have  applied  such  remedies  as 

'Described  by  G.  0.  Trevelyan  in  George  Third  and  Charles 
Fox. 


258  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

might  have  healed  rather  than  irritated  the  distemper. 
But  instead  of  anything  of  this  sort,  other  bills  were 
immediately  passed,  showing  that  all  was  of  a  hostile 
nature,  and  that  nothing  was  to  be  expected  of  this 
country  but  coercion  and  punishment.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  It  appears  to  me,  that  if  gentlemen  are  not 
blind,  they  will  see  that  war  is  impracticable,  and  that 
no  good  can  come  from  force  only.  .  .  Every  blow 
you  strike  in  America  is  against  yourselves,  even 
though  you  should  be  able,  which  you  never  will  be,  to 
force  them  to  submit. 

FROM  SPEECH  IN  PARLIAMENT,  NOVEMBER  26, 1778 

The  war  of  the  Americans  is  a  war  of  passion.  It  is  of 
such  a  nature  as  to  be  supported  by  the  most  powerful 
virtues,  love  of  liberty  and  of  country,  and  at  the  same 
time  by  those  passions  in  the  human  heart  which  give 
strength,  perserverance,  and  courage  to  man ;  the  spirit 
of  revenge  for  the  injuries  you  have  done  them,  of  re 
taliation  for  the  hardships  inflicted  on  them,  and  of 
opposition  to  the  unjust  powers  you  would  have  exer 
cised  over  them.  Everything  combines  to  animate  them 
to  this  war,  and  such  a  war  is  without  end ;  for  what 
ever  obstinacy  enthusiasm  ever  inspired  man  with, 
you  will  now  have  to  contend  with  in  America:  no 
matter  what  gives  birth  to  that  enthusiasm,  whether 
the  name  of  religion  or  of  liberty,  the  effects  are  the 
same;  it  inspires  a  spirit  that  is  unconquerable,  and 
solicitous  to  undergo  difficulties  and  dangers;  and  as 
long  as  there  is  a  man  in  America,  so  long  will  you 
have  him  against  you  in  the  field. 


SPEECHES  OF  CHARLES  FOX        259 

FROM  SPEECH  IN  PARLIAMENT,  NOVEMBER  6,  1779 

Gentlemen  had  praised  the  efforts  which  this  country 
had  made  in  the  course  of  the  war,  and  had  argued  well 
from  that  circumstance,  declaring  that  we  had  aston 
ished  all  Europe  by  our  exertions.  It  was  most  true. 
The  war  was  begun  madly,  the  Ministers  had  made  war 
blindfold,  and  the  efforts  of  this  country  so  directed, 
and  so  planned,  like  the  efforts  of  a  madman,  which 
were  always  more  powerful  than  those  of  a  reasonable 
being,  had  astonished  all  Europe.  But  what  good  had 
they  done?  They  had  only  weakened  and  reduced 
our  resources.  They  had  exhausted  the  spirit  of  the 
people,  and  had  almost  annihilated  the  power  of  future 
exertion.  An  honorable  gentleman  had  said  it  was 
improper  to  term  the  war  unjust,  excepting  only 
within  these  walls;  he  must  beg  leave  to  differ  with 
him  in  opinion.  He  thought  the  war  unjust,  he  had 
said  so  repeatedly  in  that  House,  he  had  said  so  else 
where,  and  he  would  say  so  whenever  and  wherever 
he  had  the  opportunity.  He  would  say  so  to  the  whole 
world,  if  his  voice  had  power  and  extent  enough  to 
communicate  the  idea.  But  according  to  the  argument 
of  the  honorable  gentleman  to  whom  he  was  alluding, 
what  was  unjust  in  its  origin  became  just  in  its  ad 
vancement  and  prosecution.  The  honorable  gentleman 
thought  he  had  got  justice  on  his  side,  that  he  had  got 
all.  Did  the  honorable  gentleman  think  that  the  Ameri 
cans,  once  driven  by  our  injustice  to  assert  their  inde 
pendency,  ought,  in  justice,  to  relinquish  that  inde 
pendency,  and  to  alter  their  established  government, 


260          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

and  rely  on  our  word  for  the  performance   of  our 
promises?     .     .     . 

.  .  .  But  a  right  honorable  gentleman  had  asked, 
would  gentlemen  refuse  to  thank  Lord  Cornwallis  and 
his  officers  for  their  extraordinary  gallantry  at  Cam- 
den?  In  answer  to  that  question  he,  for  one,  made  no 
scruple  to  declare  that  he  most  certainly  would.  He 
would  not  thank  his  own  brother,  who  was  now  serving 
in  America,  for  any  success  he  might  obtain.  As  long 
as  he  lived,  he  never  would  join  in  a  vote  of  thanks 
to  any  officer  whose  laurels  were  gathered  in  the  Ameri 
can  war ;  and  his  reason  was  that  he  hated  and  detested 
the  war ;  he  regarded  it  as  the  fountain-head  of  all  the 
mischief  and  all  the  calamities  which  this  miserable 
country  labored  under  at  this  moment. 

FROM  SPEECH  IN  PARLIAMENT,  MAY  30,  1781 

The  ministers  found  it  necessary  to  protract  the  war, 
to  avoid  every  tendency  to  pacification,  because  they 
knew  the  war  was  necessary  to  their  continuance  in 
power  and  place.  They  sacrificed  honor  and  duty; 
they  sacrificed  the  interests  and,  perhaps,  the  exis 
tence  of  their  country  to  the  temporary  gratification 
of  their  avarice  and  their  ambition,  in  the  enjoyment 
of  the  places  and  honors  which  they  now  held,  and 
which  were  so  connected  and  interwoven  with  the 
American  war  as  to  depend  on  its  existence.  The 
minister,  then,  knowing  this  fact,  knowing  that  he 
lived,  and  must  die,  with  the  American  war  had  en 
countered  shame  and  embraced  it,  in  order  to  its  con 
tinuance.  He  had  been  forced  into  all  those  vile  meas- 


SPEECHES  OF  CHARLES  FOX         261 

ures  of  contradiction  and  absurdity  which  had  brought 
infamy  011  the  present  age,  and  would  bring  ruin 
on  posterity.  There  was  no  accounting  for  the  cred 
ulity,  the  servility,  and  the  meanness  of  Parliament, 
in  either  believing  or  submitting  to  receive  all  the 
monstrous  and  incredible  stories  which  they  had  been 
told  by  the  minister,  in  any  other  way  than  by  referring 
to  the  means  which  influence  possessed ;  the  emoluments 
of  contracts  and  the  profits  of  a  loan.  It  had,  no  doubt, 
been  the  study  of  the  minister  to  tell  his  friends  that 
their  payment,  like  his  own  bread,  depended  on  the 
American  war.  .  .  . 

With  members  of  Parliament  the  noble  lord  held  a 
language  that  was  as  easily  to  be  guessed  at  ... 
supposing  that  any  remonstrance  should  be  made  on 
that  score,  what  would  the  noble  lord  say?  "Why, 
you  know  that  this  war  is  a  matter  of  necessity,  and 
not  jof  choice:  you  see  the  difficulties  to  which  I  am 
driven,  and  to  which  I  have  reduced  my  country; 
and  you  know  also  that  in  my  own  private  character 
I  am  a  lover  of  peace.  For  what  reasons,  then,  do  I 
persisfyin  spite  of  conviction  ?  For  your  benefit  alone ! 
For  you  I  have  violated  the  most  sacred  engagements ! 
for  you  rejected  the  suggestions  of  conscience  and 
reason !  for  you  a  thousand  times  forfeited  my  honor 
and  veracity  in  this  business,  and  for  you  I  must  still 
persist !  Without  the  American  war  I  shall  have  no 
places,  no  emoluments  to  bestow:  not  a  single  loan 
to  negotiate,  nor  shall  I  even  be  able  to  retain  this 
poor  situation  o£  mine  that  I  have  thus  long  held 
thus  disinterestedly.  You  see  me  now  in.  the  most 


262          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

elevated  situation,  with  the  disposal  of  pensions  and 
places,  and  with  the  whole  of  the  nation  in  my  hands ; 
but  make  peace  with  America  today,  and  tomorrow 
I  shall  be  reduced  to  the  level  of  private  life,  retain 
ing  nothing  but  what  is  merely  personal  of  all  my 
present  advantages.  If  you  do  not  vote  with  me," 
continues  the  noble  lord,  ' '  against  a  peace  with  Amer 
ica,  how  am  I  to  give  you  anything  ?  It  is  true  that  my 
position  as  minister  is  a  respectable  and  elevated  situa 
tion,  but  it  is  the  American  war  that  enables  me  to 
give  you  douceurs,  and  to  put  into  your  pockets  eight 
or  nine  hundred  thousands  pounds  by  a  loan.  Put  an 
end  to  that  and  you  undo  all.  My  power  will  be  mis 
erably  lessened,  and  your  pay  as  miserably  reduced. 
As  to  myself,  why,  I  am  perfectly  indifferent  about 
that ;  I  get  a  little,  and  it  is  my  happiness  that  a  little, 
thank  Heaven,  contents  me.  I  therefore  cannot  be 
supposed  to  care  if  a  peace  takes  place  with  America 
tomorrow,  so  far  as  I  am  personally  concerned ;  but 
for  your  own  sakes  do  not  let  such  things  come  to  pass. 
Nay,  were  I  to  go  out  of  office — a  situation  I  never 
courted,  always  disliked,  and  heartily  wished  to  be 
rid  of — still  I  hope  the  American  war  would  be  con 
tinued."  Such  pathetic  reasoning  could  not  fail  to 
have  its  effect.  Thus  it  was  the  noble  lord  induced 
members  of  that  House  to  sacrifice  the  interests  of 
their  constituents,  by  proving  that  their  own  interests 
were  essentially  connected  with  the  prosecution  of  the 
war.  Was  it  possible,  therefore,  that  peace  with  Amer 
ica  could  ever  be  obtained  but  by  a  renunciation  of 
that  system  which  the  present  ministry  had  with  so 


SPEECHES  OF  CHAKLES  FOX        263 

much  obstinacy  adhered  to?  And  here  was  another 
obstacle  arising  from  the  noble  lord's  feelings.  "O 
spare  my  beautiful  system!"  he  would  cry;  "what! 
shall  I  part  with  that !  with  that  which  has  been  the 
glory  of  the  present  reign,  which  has  extended  the 
dominions,  raised  the  reputation,  and  replenished  the 
finances  of  my  country !  No,  for  God 's  sake,  let  this 
be  adhered  to,  and  do  with  all  the  rest  what  you  please ; 
deprive  me,  if  you  please,  of  this  poor  situation ;  take 
all  my  power,  all  my  honor  and  consequence,  but  spare 
my  beautiful  system,  O,  spare  my  system ! ' ' 

FROM  SPEECH  ix  PARLIAMENT,  NOVEMBER  27, 1781 

.  .  It  was  his  opinion  that  the  day  was  now  ap 
proaching,  that  it  was  at  hand,  when  the  public  would 
no  longer  submit,  nor  the  Ministry  escape.  Their  con 
duct  was  unprecedented  in  any  age  or  in  any  history ; 
it  beggared  the  records  of  nations :  for  in  all  the  annals 
of  kingdoms  ruined  by  weakness  or  by  treachery  there 
was  not  an  instance  so  glaring  as  the  present  of  a  coun 
try  ruined  by  a  set  of  men  without  the  confidence,  the 
love,  or  the  opinion  of  the  people,  and  who  yet  re 
mained  secure  amidst  the  storms  of  public  disaster.  The 
honorable  gentleman  who  had  seconded  the  motion  had 
called  for  unanimity.  He  demanded  to  know  if  they 
meant  to  insult  that  side  of  the  House  when  they  had 
opposed  it  from  its  commencement ;  they  had  opposed 
it  in  all  its  progress;  they  had  warned,  supplicated, 
and  threatened;  they  had  predicted  every  event,  and 
in  no  one  instance  had  they  failed  in  predicting  the 
fatal  consequences  that  had  ensued  from  their  ob- 


264          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

stinacy  or  from  their  treason.  If,  in  a  moment  like 
the  present,  a  moment  of  impending  ruin,  men  who 
loved  their  country  could  have  any  comfort,  he  con 
fessed  he  must  feel  it  as  a  comfort  and  consolation 
that  when  the  history  of  this  dreadful  period  should 
come  to  be  written  by  a  candid  and  impartial  hand, 
he  must  proclaim  to  posterity  that  the  friends  with 
whom  he  had  the  honor  to  act  were  not  to  be  charged 
with  the  calamities  of  the  system.  In  justice  to  them 
he  must  declare  that  they  did  all  that  men  could  do 
to  avert  the  evils,  to  direct  them  to  a  more  safe  and 
honorable  track ;  but  they  had  failed  in  their  anxious 
endeavors  to  save  their  country.  This  much  at  least 
the  historian  would  say,  and  thus  would  they  be  ex 
empted  from  sharing  the  condemnation,  though  they 
now  suffered  the  calamity,  in  common  with  the  rest 
of  their  unhappy  fellow-subjects.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  The  ministers  commenced  war  against  Amer 
ica  after  that  country  had  offered  the  fairest  proposi 
tions,  and  extended  her  arms  to  receive  us  into  the 
closest  and  nearest  connection.  They  did  this  con 
trary  to  their  own  sentiments  of  what  was  right ;  but 
they  were  overruled  by  that  high  and  secret  authority 
which  they  durst  not  disobey,  and  from  which  they 
derive  their  situations.  They  were  ordered  to  go  on 
with  the  American  war  or  quit  their  places.  They 
preferred  emolument  to  duty,  and  kept  their  ostensible 
power  at  the  expense  of  their  country. 


VII 

EXCERPTS  FROM  SPEECHES  AS  RECORDED 

IN  THE  PARLIAMENTARY  HISTORY 

FOR  1775-1776 

GOVERNOR  GEORGE  JOHNSTONS 

If  we  fail  in  the  attempt,  which  is  the  happiest  event 
that  can  occur,  what  difficulties  may  not  disgust,  irri 
tation,  and  all  the  horrors  of  civil  war,  engender? 
(Feb.  6,  1775.) 

But  respecting  general  opinion,  I  still  go  further ;  I 
maintain  that  the  sense  of  the  best  and  wisest  men  in 
this  country,  are  on  the  side  of  the  Americans.  (Oct. 
26,  1775.) 

J.   JOHNSTONE 

Mr.  J.  Johnstone  said  that  however  unacquainted 
he  might  be  with  parliamentary  proceedings,  he  had 
observed,  since  the  commencement  of  the  present  ses 
sion,  it  was  expected  by  the  friends  of  administration, 
that  no  proposition  of  theirs,  however  wild,  extrava 
gance,  or  novel,  should  be  questioned.  This  to  him 
was  a  most  extraordinary  procedure,  nor  could  he  see 
to  what  end  Parliament  assembled,  if  they  only  assem 
bled  to  vote,  not  to  deliberate.  (Nov.  13,  1775.) 

SIR  GEORGE  SAVTLE 

That  if  rebellion  was  resistance  to  government,  he 
could  not  consider  all  rebellions  to  be  alike — there  must 

265 


266          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

be  such  a  thing  as  justifiable  rebellion — and  submitted 
to  the  House,  whether  a  people  taxed  without  their 
consent,  and  their  petitions  against  such  taxation  re 
jected;  their  characters  taken  away  without  hearing; 
and  an  army  let  loose  upon  them  without  a  possibility 
of  obtaining  justice — whether  a  people  under  such  cir 
cumstances  could  not  be  said  to  be  in  justifiable 
rebellion?  (Feb.  10,  1775.) 


TEMPLE  LUTTRELL. 

Sir,  the  far  more  considerable  part  of  the  people 
of  England  do  now  wish  us  to  use  temper,  moderation, 
and  forbearance  towards  America.  (Feb.  13,  1775.) 

The  military  coercion  of  America  will  be  imprac 
ticable.  What  has  been  the  fate  of  your  famous  Bills 
passed  in  the  last  session  of  the  deceased  Parliament  ? 
I  mean,  Sir,  the  Boston  Port  Bill,  and  the  Bill  for 
altering  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  America, 
as  an  earnest  of  her  triumph  over  the  future  labors 
for  which  envy  and  malice  may  reserve  her,  has,  like 
another  Hercules  in  the  cradle,  already  grappled  with 
those  two  serpents  sent  for  her  destruction.  Neither 
shall  we  be  long  able  to  sustain  the  unhallowed  war 
at  so  remote  a  distance — unexplored  deserts,  woodland 
ambuscades,  latitudes  to  which  few  of  our  soldiery 
have  been  seasoned — the  southern  provinces  scarce  to 
be  endured  in  the  summer  months,  the  northern  prov 
inces  not  approachable  in  the  winter  season — ship 
wrecks,  pestilence,  famine.  The  unrelenting  inveter- 


PARLIAMENTARY  HISTORY  267 

acy  and  carnage  of  York  and  Lancaster  will  here  be 
joined  to  all  the  elementary  hardships  and  maladies 
of  a  bigot  crusade.  Shall  not  such  dreadful  eras  in 
our  earlier  chronicle  serve  us  for  beacons  at  this  peril 
ous  crisis?  Those  rash  expeditions,  indeed,  under 
taken  by  a  few  martial  zealots  on  misconceived  piety, 
began  to  decline  at  the  death  of  the  hot-brained,  sav 
age-hearted  king,  under  whom  they  were  first  enter- 
prized  ;  and  the  sluices  of  kindred  blood,  which  had 
long  inundated  the  land  in  the  red  and  white  roses, 
were  at  length  happily  put  a  stop  to,  by  a  single  matri 
monial  contract.  Now,  Sir,  who  can  look  forward  to  a 
probable  epoch  in  the  red  volume  of  time  when  the 
sword  drawn  in  this  quarrel  shall  be  sheathed  in  peace ! 
I  can  see  no  end,  till  slaughter,  proscription,  extirpa 
tion,  shall  totally  have  annihilated  either  one  or  the 
other  people.  (Feb.  27,  1775.) 

Sir,  the  noble  lord  who  spoke  last,  and  the  right 
honorable  member  who  preceded  him,  have  assured 
you  that  the  sense  of  this  country  is  against  the  Amer 
icans.  I  am  confident,  as  well  from  the  intelligence 
I  have  been  able  to  procure  from  a  multitude  of 
persons  widely  differing  in  station  and  description, 
as  by  my  own  remarks  in  the  progress  of  many  a  jour 
ney  through  the  interior  of  this  island  during  the 
summer  season,  that  the  sense  of  the  mass  of  the 
people  is  in  favor  of  the  Americans.  (Oct.  26, 
1775.) 

Certain  I  am,  that  the  only  fabricators  of  the  Amer 
ican  war  are  in  this  island ;  they  are  in  this  metropolis ; 
they  are  most  of  them  in  this  House.  (Nov.  27,  1775.) 


268  BUBKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

DAVID  HARTLEY  (WHO  WAS  A  FRIEND  OF  BENJAMIN 
FRANKLIN,  AND  WITH  HIM  DREW  UP  THE  TREATY  OF 
PEACE  THAT  ENDED  THE  REVOLUTION) 

"When  the  debates  and  measures  of  this  year  are 
transmitted  to  America,  they  may,  perhaps,  tell  the 
noble  lord :  ' '  Had  you  pursued  a  plan  of  equity  and 
justice,  all  had  been  peace. "  At  home,  one  plan  of 
conciliation  has  already  been  proposed,  for  which  the 
city  of  London,  foreseeing  the  certain  ruin  of  other 
measures,  has  given  thanks  to  its  great  and  noble 
author,  as  an  earnest  for  the  rest  of  the  kingdom.  If 
Great  Britain  and  America  should  come  to  one  mind 
of  peace,  they  may  unite  to  crush  those  men  who  keep 
them  asunder.  (March  27,  1775.) 

....  to  perform  the  last  ceremonial  office  of  affec 
tion  and  everlasting  farewell  to  peace  and  to  America. 
The  fate  of  America  is  cast.  You  may  bruise  its  heel, 
but  you  cannot  crush  its  head.  It  will  revive  again. 
The  new  world  is  before  them.  Liberty  is  theirs.  They 
have  possession  of  a  free  government,  their  birthright 
and  inheritance,  derived  to  them  from  their  parent 
state,  which  the  hand  of  violence  cannot  wrest  from 
them.  If  you  will  cast  them  off,  my  last  wish  is  to 
them;  may  they  go  and  prosper.  (Dec.  21,  1775.) 

What  confidence  can  we  then  have  in  ministers  who 
are  so  grossly  ignorant  and  deceived,  or  who  conceal 
the  true  state  of  things  from  this  House  and  the  pub 
lic,  perhaps  with  no  better  view  than  to  trepan  them 
insidiously,  and  by  gradual  steps,  into  the  support  of 


PAKLIAMENTARY  HISTORY  269 

their  own  desperate  and  sanguinary  designs?     (Feb. 
29,  1776.) 

...  .  The  most  profound  secrecy  and  conceal 
ment  have  been  practiced  to  keep  alarming  truths  from 
the  public  eye,  and  false  preferences  have  been  thrown 
out  to  amuse  the  credulous  confidence  of  this  House. 
It  is  not  many  months  ago  (no  longer  than  the  last 
session)  that  any  member  who  got  up  to  warn  you  of 
the  fatal  consequence  of  the  war  then  recommended 
against  America  was  laughed  at  in  his  place ;  the  very 
suggestion  was  treated  as  being  so  ridiculous  that  the 
minister  proposed  to  you  to  begin  by  disarming;  by 
voting  4,000  seamen  less  than  you  had  kept  the  year 
before ;  and  not  many  days  after  the  meeting  of  the 
new  Parliament  a  vote  of  3s.  land-tax  was  proposed, 
with  a  view  to  soothe  the  landed  men  into  the  adoption 
of  this  fatal  war.  That  this  step  was  taken  with  no 
other  view  than  to  quiet  the  alarms  of  the  landed  in 
terest  is  past  dispute,  because  the  vote  for  the  3s.  land- 
tax  was  passed  before  Christmas,  though  the  Bill  was 
not  brought  in  till  after  the  holidays ;  the  vote  there 
fore  was  studiously  thrown  out  beforehand,  to  prevent 
the  discontents  that  might  happen,  and  to  mislead  the 
public  into  a  fallacious  dependence,  that  a  few  unim 
portant  discontents  in  America,  as  they  were  then  rep 
resented  to  be,  would  soon  be  subdued.  Where  are 
we  now?  Have  not  our  forebodings  been  more  than 
realized?  Has  it  been  arrant  folly  in  administration, 
to  plunge  us  into  our  present  situation  ?  or,  has  it  been 
downright  treachery  aforethought,  to  lead  their  un 
suspecting  country,  step  by  step,  into  an  irreconcilable 


270  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

civil  war,  to  dip  Great  Britain  and  America  in  blood, 
and  to  cut  off  the  retreat  to  peace  and  safety  ?  (April 
1,  1776.) 

CHARLES  JAMES  FOX 

Mr.  Fox  said  the  noble  Lord  from  the  beginning 
had  taken  care  to  lead  the  House  blindfold ;  and  would, 
he  was  certain,  continue  to  do  so,  till  he  found  some 
personal  convenience  in  acting  otherwise. 

The  fact  was  the  very  reverse,  as  his  lordship  had 
been  both  the  framer  and  approver;  and  by  the  arts 
of  misinformation  on  one  hand,  and  want  of  any  ma 
terial  information  on  the  other,  Parliament  were  per 
suaded  into  an  approbation  of  his  measures.  (March 
8,  1775.) 

THE  MARQUIS  OF  GRANBY 

In  God's  name,  what  language  are  you  now  holding 
out  to  America?  Resign  your  property,  divest  your 
selves  of  your  privileges  and  freedom,  renounce  every 
thing  that  can  make  life  comfortable,  or  we  will 
destroy  your  commerce,  we  will  involve  your  country 
in  all  the  miseries  of  famine ;  and  if  you  express  the 
sensations  of  men  at  such  harsh  treatment,  we  will 
then  declare  you  in  a  state  of  rebellion,  and  put  your 
selves  and  your  families,  to  fire  and  sword.  And  yet, 
Sir,  the  noble  lord  on  the  floor,  has  just  told  this 
House,  that  a  reconciliation  is  the  sole  object  of  his 
wishes.  I  hope  the  noble  lord  will  pardon  me  if  I 
doubt  the  perfect  sincerity  of  those  wishes;  at  least, 
Sir,  his  actions  justify  my  doubts ;  for  every  circum 
stance  in  his  whole  conduct,  with  regard  to  America, 


PARLIAMENTARY  HISTORY  271 

has  directly  militated  against  his  present  professions : 
and  what,  Sir,  must  the  Americans  conclude  ?  Whilst 
you  are  ravaging  their  coasts,  and  extirpating  their 
commerce,  and  are  withheld  only  by  your  impotence 
from  spreading  fresh  ruin  by  the  sword,  can  they,  Sir, 
suppose  such  chastisement  is  intended  to  promote  a 
reconciliation,  and  that  you  mean  to  restore  to  their 
forlorn  country  those  liberties  you  deny  to  their  pres 
ent  possession ;  and  in  the  insolence  of  persecution,  are 
compassing  earth  and  seas  to  destroy  ?  You  can  with 
no  more  justice  compel  the  Americans  to  your  obedi 
ence  by  the  operation  of  the  present  measure,  by  mak 
ing  use  of  their  necessities  and  withholding  from  them 
that  commerce  on  which  their  existence  depends  than 
a  ruffian  can  found  an  equitable  claim  to  my  posses 
sions,  when  he  forcibly  enters  my  house,  and  with  a 
dagger  at  my  throat,  or  a  pistol  at  my  breast,  makes 
me  seal  deeds  which  will  convey  to  him  my  estate  and 
property.  (April  5,  1775.) 

I  have  a  very  clear,  a  very  adequate  idea  of  rebel 
lion,  at  least  according  to  my  own  principles;  and 
those  are  the  principles  on  which  the  Revolution  was 
founded.  It  is  not  against  whom  a  war  is  directed, 
but  it  is  the  justice  of  that  war  that  does,  or  does  not, 
constitute  rebellion.  If  the  innocent  part  of  mankind 
must  tamely  relinquish  their  freedom,  their  property, 
and  everything  they  hold  dear,  merely  to  avoid  the 
imputation  of  rebellion,  I  beg,  Sir,  it  may  be  consid 
ered,  what  kind  of  peace  and  loyalty  there  will  then 
exist  in  the  world,  which  consists  only  in  violence  and 
rapine,  and  is  merely  to  be  maintained  for  the  benefit 


272  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

,of  robbers  and  oppressors.  I  hope,  Sir,  I  shall  be  be 
lieved  when  I  assure  you  that  I  am  as  warm  a  friend 
to  the  interests  of  my  country  as  any  man  in  this 
House ;  but  then  it  must  be  understood  when  those  in 
terests  are  founded  in  justice.  I  am  not  attached  to 
any  particular  acre  of  land ;  the  farmer  in  Cumberland 
or  Durham  is  as  little  connected  with  me  as  the  peasant 
in  America :  it  is  not  the  ground  a  man  stands  on  that 
attaches  me  to  him ;  it  is  not  the  air  he  breathes  that 
connects  me  with  him,  but  it  is  the  principles  of  that 
man,  those  independent,  those  generous  principles  of 
liberty  which  he  professes,  co-operating  with  my  own, 
which  call  me  forth  as  his  advocate,  and  make  me 
glory  in  being  considered  his  friend.  (April  5,  1775.) 

THE  EARL  OF  EFFINGHAM 

Ever  since  I  was  of  an  age  to  have  any  ambition  at 
all,  my  highest  has  been  to  serve  my  country  in  a  mili 
tary  capacity.  If  there  was  on  earth  an  event  I 
dreaded,  it  was  to  see  this  country  so  situated  as  to 
make  that  profession  incompatible  with  my  duty  as 
a  citizen.  That  period  is,  in  my  opinion,  arrived ;  and 
I  have  thought  myself  bound  to  relinquish  the  hopes 
I  had  formed,  by  a  resignation  which  appeared  to  me 
the  only  method  of  avoiding  the  guilt  of  enslaving  my 
country,  and  embruing  my  hands  in  the  blood  of  her 
sons.  When  the  duties  of  a  soldier  and  a  citizen  be 
come  inconsistent,  I  shall  always  think  myself  obliged 
to  sink  the  character  of  the  soldier  in  that  of  the  citi 
zen,  till  such  time  as  those  duties  shall  again,  by  the 
malice  of  our  real  enemies,  become  united.  It  is  no 


PARLIAMENTARY  HISTORY  273 

small  sacrifice  which  a  man  makes  who  gives  up  his 
profession ;  but  it  is  a  much  greater  when  a  predilec 
tion,  strengthened  by  habit,  has  given  him  so  strong 
an  attachment  to  his  profession  as  I  feel.  I  have,  how- 
eVer,  this  one  consolation,  that  by  making  that  sacri 
fice  I  at  least  give  to  my  country  an  unequivocal  proof 
of  the  sincerity  of  my  principles.  (May  18,  1775.) 

The  Earl  of  Effingham  observed  on  the  scarcity  of 
recruits,  that  from  his  own  knowledge  there  was  a 
backwardness  prevailed  amongst  the  people  to  enlist  in 
those  regiments  destined  for  America.  The  fact  being 
admitted,  the  real  disposition  of  the  people  was  at  once 
apparent,  and  the  prevalent  inclination  of  the  mass  of 
the  people  was  a  certain  criterion,  which  should  deter 
mine  the  conduct  of  ministers.  (Nov.  10,  1775.) 

THE   MARQUIS    OF   ROCKIXGHAM 

The  Marquis  of  Rockingham,  after  enumerating  the 
conduct  of  the  several  administrations  for  some  years 
past  respecting  America,  condemned  the  speech,  which 
he  called  the  speech  of  the  minister,  in  very  pointed 
terms ;  and  contended  that  the  measures  recommended 
from  the  throne  were  big  with  the  most  portentous 
and  ruinous  consequences.  (Oct.  26,  1775.) 

THE  EARL  OF  SHELBURXE 

My  lords,  the  ministers  lament,  that  it  is  their  task, 
in  this  American  business,  to  support  the  measure  of 
another  administration.  This  is  some  acknowledg 
ment,  at  least,  that  the  measure  was  wrong.  Why, 
then,  did  they  support  it  ?  What  secret  influence  has 


274          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

compelled  them  to  heap  errors  on  errors,  grievance 
upon  grievance,  till  they  have  shaken  the  constitution 
to  its  foundation,  and  brought  the  whole  empire  into 
danger  and  confusion?  The  Americans  judge  from 
facts.  They  have  seen  a  uniform  lurking  spirit  of 
despotism  pervade  every  administration.  It  has  pre 
vailed  over  the  wisest  and  most  constitutional  coun 
sels  ;  it  has  precipitated  us  into  the  most  pernicious  of 
all  wars;  a  war  with  our  brothers,  our  friends,  and 
our  fellow  subjects.  It  was  this  lurking  spirit  of 
despotism  that  produced  the  Stamp  Act  in  1765 ;  that 
fettered  the  repeal  of  that  Act  in  1766 ;  that  revived 
the  principles  of  it  in  1767.  (Oct.  26,  1775.)  ' 

THE  LORD  MAYOR  OF  LONDON,  MR.  WILKES 

I  call  the  war  with  our  brethern  in  America  an  un 
just,  felonious  war  ...  I  assert,  Sir,  that  it  is  in 
consequence  a  murderous  war,  because  it  is  an  effort 
to  deprive  men  of  their  lives  for  standing  up  in  the 
just  cause  of  the  defense  of  their  property,  and  their 
clear  rights.  It  becomes  no  less  a  murderous  war,  with 
respect  to  many  of  our  fellow  subjects  of  this  island ; 
for  every  man,  either  of  the  navy  or  army,  who  has 
been  sent  by  government  to  America,  and  fallen  a  vic 
tim  in  this  unnatural  and  unjust  contest,  has,  in  my 
opinion,  been  murdered  by  administration,  and  his 
blood  lies  at  their  door.  Such  a  war,  I  fear,  Sir,  will 
draw  down  the  vengeance  of  Heaven  upon  this  devoted 
kingdom.  (Oct.  26,  1775.) 

I  speak,  Sir,  as  a  firm  friend  to  England  and  Amer 
ica,  but  still  more  to  universal  liberty,  and  the  rights 


PARLIAMENTARY  HISTORY  275 

of  all  mankind.  I  trust  no  part  of  the  subjects  of  this 
vast  empire  will  ever  submit  to  be  slaves.  I  am  sure 
the  Americans  are  too  high-spirited  to  brook  the  idea. 
Your  whole  power  and  that  of  your  allies,  if  you  add 
any,  even  of  all  the  German  troops,  of  all  the  ruffians 
from  the  north  whom  you  can  hire,  cannot  effect  so 
wicked  a  purpose.  (Oct.  26, 1775.) 

GENERAL    CONWAY 

He  condemned  that  war  as  cruel,  unnecessary,  and 
unnatural ;  called  it  a  butchery  of  his  fellow  subjects, 
to  which  his  conscience  forbade  him  to  give  his  assent. 
(Oct.  26,  1775.) 

SERGEANT  ADAIE 

I  am  against  the  present  war,  Sir,  because  I  think 
it  unjust  in  its  commencement,  injurious  to  both  coun 
tries  in  its  prosecution,  and  ruinous  in  its  event.  .  .  . 

This  doubtful  and  unprofitable  right  has  been  at 
tempted  to  be  asserted  and  enforced  by  a  series  of 
laws,  the  most  oppressive,  the  most  violent,  the  most 
arbitrary,  unjust  and  tyrannical,  that  ever  disgraced 
the  annals  of  any  civilized  nation  upon  earth.  .  .  . 

Thinking  them,  as  I  now  do,  from  the  bottom  of  my 
soul,  engaged  in  a  noble  and  glorious  struggle  .... 
(Oct.  27,  1775.) 

GEORGE  DEMPSTER 

....  That  in  my  conscience  I  think  the  claim  of  the 
Americans  is  just  and  well-founded.  (Oct.  27, 

1775.) 


276  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 


SIR   JOSEPH    MAWBEY 

Sir  Joseph  Mawbey  said  the  American  war  was  un 
necessary  and  wanton ;  and  it  was  difficult  to  determine 
whether  it  was  most  founded  in  folly  or  injustice. 
(Nov.  13,  1775.) 

THE  DUKE  OF  GBAFTON 

He  explained  the  reasons  upon  which  his  motion 
was  founded ;  and  said,  he  thought  such  a  motion  ex 
tremely  necessary  at  this  time,  when  not  only  the  na 
tion  at  large  was  kept  in  such  profound  ignorance,  but 
even  the  ancient  hereditary  council,  his  Majesty's 
great  constitutional  advisers,  knew  no  more  of  what 
measures  were  intended  to  be  pursued  than  they  did 
of  what  was  transacting  in  any  foreign  cabinet  in 
Europe.  (Nov.  15,  1775.) 

LORD   CAMDEN 

Peace  is  still  within  our  power ;  nay,  we  may  com 
mand  it.  A  suspension  of  arms  on  our  part,  if  adopted 
in  time,  will  secure  it  for  us ;  and  I  may  add,  on  our 
own  terms.  From  which  it  is  plain,  as  we  have  been 
the  original  aggressors  in  this  business,  if  we  obsti 
nately  persist,  we  are  fairly  answerable  for  all  the 
consequences.  I  again  repeat,  what  I  often  urged 
before,  that  I  was  against  this  unnatural  war  from 
the  beginning.  I  was  equally  against  every  measure 
from  the  instant  the  first  tax  was  proposed  to  this  min 
ute.  When,  therefore,  it  is  insisted,  that  we  aim  only 
to  defend  and  enforce  our  own  rights,  I  positively 


PARLIAMENTARY  HISTORY  277 

deny  it.  I  contend,  that  America  has  been  driven,  by 
cruel  necessity,  to  defend  her  rights  from  the  united 
attacks  of  violence,  oppression,  and  injustice.  I  con 
tend  that  America  has  been  indisputably  aggrieved. 
Perhaps,  as  a  domineering  Englishman,  wishing  to 
enjoy  the  ideal  benefit  of  such  a  claim,  I  might  urge  it 
with  earnestness,  and  endeavor  to  carry  my  point ;  but 
if,  on  the  other  hand,  I  resided  in  America,  that  I  felt 
or  was  to  feel  the  effects  of  such  manifest  injustice, 
I  certainly  should  resist  the  attempt  with  that  degree 
of  ardor  so  daring  a  violation  of  what  should  be  held 
dearer  than  life  itself  ought  to  enkindle  in  the  breast 
of  every  freeman.  Here,  my  lords,  I  speak  as  an 
Americ'an,  or  as  one  residing  in  America,  who,  finding 
himself  deprived  of  his  liberty  and  his  property  at 
tacked,  would  resist  and  with  all  his  might  repel  the 
aggressor.  (Nov.  15,  1775.) 

LORD  HOWE 

Lord  Howe  did  not  know  any  struggle  an  officer 
could  have,  serving  on  the  present  occasion,  so  painful 
as  that  between  his  duty  as  an  officer  and  his  duty  as 
a  man.  However  he  suffered,  if  commanded,  his  de 
cided  duty  was  to  serve.  He  did  apprehend  that  all 
this  an  honorable  relation  of  his  had  felt ;  it  was  what 
he  himself  felt  very  sensibly ;  and  if  it  were  left  to  his 
choice,  he  certainly  should  decline  to  serve.  (Nov.  20, 
1775.) 

THE  DUKE  OF  RICHMOND 

On  the  whole,  my  lords,  I  pronounce  this  Bill  to  be 
fraught  with  all  possible  injustice  and  cruelty.  I  do 


278  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

not  think  the  people  of  America  in  rebellion,  but  re 
sisting  acts  of  the  most  unexampled  cruelty  and  op 
pression.  (Dec.  15,  1775.) 

For  instance,  I  say  the  present  Bill  is  cruel,  oppres 
sive,  and  tyrannic.  I  contend  that  the  resistance  made 
by  the  colonists  is  in  consequence  of  other  acts,  equally 
oppressive,  cruel,  and  tyrannic ;  and  thus  I  prove  that 
this  resistance  is  not  rebellion,  but  that  the  Americans 
are  resisting  acts  of  violence  and  injustice;  conse 
quently,  that  such  a  resistance  is  neither  treason  nor 
rebellion ;  but  is  perfectly  justifiable  in  every  possible 
political  and  moral  sense.  (Dec.  15,  1775.) 

JOHN  DUNNING 

Mr.  Dunning  said  that,  whatever  doubts  prevailed 
on  the  first  day  of  the  session,  whether  the  speech  from 
the  throne  predicted  war  or  peace,  no  one  could  now 
be  at  a  loss  to  know  its  genuine  import.  He  was  one 
who  looked  upon  it,  from  the  very  beginning,  to  be  a 
formal  declaration  of  war  against  all  America.  He 
was  every  day  more  and  more  satisfied  that  his  sus 
picions  were  well-founded;  but  now  he  has  nothing 
to  prevent  him  from  pronouncing  with  certainty  that 
he  was  fully  justified  in  his  opinion  that  war,  and  a 
war  of  the  most  unrelenting  and  bloody  complection, 
was  meant  to  be  made  on  those  devoted  people.  (Dec. 
1,  1775.) 

MR.  CRUGER 

If  their  claims  of  exemption  from  parliamentary 
taxation  are  founded  in  equity  and  the  principles  of 
the  constitution ;  if  they  have  been  driven  by  a  wanton, 


PARLIAMENTARY  HISTORY  279 

cruel,  and  impolitic  attack  on  their  privileges  to  their 
present  desperate  defense,  then  the  whole  guilt  and 
censure  is  chargeable  on  those,  and  those  alone,  whose 
ambition  and  ill-directed  measures  have  forced  them 
to  these  extremities.  {Feb.  20,  1776.) 

COL.  BARRE 

But  in  a  serious  manner  he  charged  the  gentlemen 
opposite  to  him  with  the  loss  of  America.  'With  an 
emphasis  he  said,  Give  us  back  our  colonies !  You  have 
lost  America !  It  is  your  ignorance,  blunders,  coward 
ice,  which  have  lost  America.  He  had  heard  the  noble 
lord  (George  Germain)  called  "the  Pitt  of  the  day." 
He  saw  no  great  sense  in  the  words.  They  conveyed  to 
him  that  there  had  been  a  Mr.  Pitt,  a  great  man,  but  he 
did  not  see  how  the  noble  lord  was  like  him.  He  said 
that  the  troops,  from  an  aversion  to  the  service,  misbe 
haved  at  Bunker 's  Hill  on  the  17th  of  June.  He  con 
demned  administration  in  the  strongest  terms,  and  told 
them  that  their  shiftings  and  evasions  would  not  pro 
tect  them,  though  they  should  be  changed  every  day, 
and  made  to  shift  places  at  the  pleasure,  and  sometimes 
too  for  the  sport  of  their  secret  directors.  He  observed 
that  the  late  appointment  of  a  new  secretary  of  state 
was  a  proof  that  some  weak,  and  perhaps  foul,  proceed 
ings  had  happened,  which  made  such  an  arrangement 
necessary;  but  though  changes  might  happen  every 
day,  he  was  well  convinced  measures  never  would,  till 
the  whole  fabric  of  despotism  fell  at  once,  and  buried 
in  its  ruins  the  architects,  with  all  those  employed 
under  them.  He  reminded  the  House  how  often,  in  the 


280  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

course  of  the  two  last  years,  he  had  foretold  almost 
every  matter  that  had  happened.  He  begged  once 
more  to  assure  them  that  America  would  never  sub 
mit  to  be  taxed,  though  half  Germany  were  to  be  trans 
ported  beyond  the  Atlantic,  to  effect  it.  (Feb.  20r 
1776.) 

FREDERICK   STUART 

This  I  do  say  for  the  Americans,  because  I  do  be 
lieve  it,  that  had  their  real  motives  been  fairly  and 
impartially  laid  before  this  House,  and  the  Parliament 
of  Great  Britain  been  called  in  as  the  mediators,  not 
the  persecutors  of  the  people,  all  would  have  ended 
well;  that  good  faith  which  had  been  wantonly  vio 
lated  towards  the  colonies  would  have  been  restored 
upon  a  more  lasting  foundation,  and  men's  lives  and 
properties  been  safe  at  this  very  hour.  (Feb.  29, 
1776.) 

EARL,    TEMPLE 

From  these  and  other  causes,  together  with  the  im 
becility  of  administration,  this  country  is  reduced  into 
a  situation  so  deplorable  that  the  wisest  man  in  the 
kingdom  can  propose  nothing  that  promises  an  honor 
able  issue.  I  feel  that  I  speak  in  fetters.  (March  5, 
1776.) 

PROTEST  SIGNED  BY  SIXTEEN  MEMBERS  OF  COMMONS 

Because  the  attempt  to  coerce  by  famine  the 
whole  body  of  the  inhabitants  of  great  and  populous 
provinces  is  without  example  in  the  history  of  this,  or 


PARLIAMENTARY  HISTORY  281 

perhaps  of  any  civilized  nation;  and  is  one  of  those 
unhappy  inventions  to  which  Parliament  is  driven  by 
the  difficulties  which  daily  multiply  upon  us,  from  an 
obstinate  adherence  to  an  unwise  plan  of  government. 
.  .  .  .  That  government  which  attempts  to  preserve 
its  authority  by  destroying  the  trade  of  its  subjects, 
and  by  involving  the  innocent  and  guilty  in  a  common 
ruin,  if  it  acts  from  a  choice  of  such  means,  confesses 
itself  unworthy;  if  from  inability  to  find  any  other, 
admits  itself  wholly  incompetent  to  the  ends  of  its 
institution.  (March  21,  1775.) 

PROTEST  SIGNED  BY  NINETEEN  MEMBERS 

"We  have,  on  the  other  hand,  beheld  so  large  a  part 
of  the  empire,  united  in  one  common  cause,  really  sac 
rificing  with  cheerfulness  their  lives  and  fortunes,  and 
preferring  all  the  horrors  of  a  war  raging  in  the  very 
heart  of  their  country  to  ignominious  ease.  We  have 
beheld  this  part  of  his  Majesty's  subjects,  thus  irri 
tated  by  resistance,  and  so  successful  in  it,  still  making 
professions  in  which  we  think  it  neither  wise  nor 
decent  to  affect  a  disbelief  of  the  utmost  loyalty  to  his 
Majesty;  and  unwearied  with  continued  repulses,  re 
peatedly  petitioning  for  conciliation,  upon  such  terms 
only  as  shall  be  consistent  with  the  dignity  and  welfare 
of  the  mother  country.  When  we  consider  these 
things,  we  cannot  look  upon  our  fellow-subjects  in 
America  in  any  other  light  than  that  of  freemen  driven 
to  resistance  by  acts  of  oppression  and  violence.  .  .  . 

Because  we  conceive  the  calling  in  foreign  forces 


282  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

to  decide  domestic  quarrels,  to  be  a  measure  both,  dis 
graceful  and  dangerous  .  .  . 

That  Hanoverian  troops  should,  at  the  mere  pleasure 
of  the  ministers,  be  considered  as  a  part  of  the  British 
military  establishment,  and  take  a  rotation  of  garrison 
duties  through  these  dominions  is,  in  practice  and 
precedent,  of  the  highest  danger  to  the  safety  and  lib 
erties  of  this  kingdom,  and  tends  wholly  to  invalidate 
the  wise  and  salutary  declaration  of  the  grand  funda 
mental  law  of  our  glorious  deliverer,  King  William, 
which  has  bound  together  the  rights  of  the  subject 
and  the  succession  of  the  crown.  .  .  . 

The  present  ministers,  who  have  deceived  Parlia 
ment,  disgraced  the  nation,  lost  the  colonies,  and  in 
volved  us  in  a  civil  war  against  our  clearest  interests ; 
and,  upon  the  most  unjustifiable  grounds,  wantonly 
spilling  the  blood  of  thousands  of  our  fellow  subjects. 
(Oct.  26,  1775.) 


PLAN   OF   THE   SPEECH   ON   CONCILIATION 

Some  schools  prepare  a  very  elaborate  outline  of  the  Speech 
on  Conciliation.  As  an  exercise  in  constructing  a  complete  brief 
this  may  have  its  advantages,  but  Burke  would  probably  not 
recognize  his  own  mental  processes  in  that  formidable  array 
of  sub-subheadings.  The  ordinary  student  gets  a  much  truer 
conception  of  the  structure  by  referring  to  the  simplest  out 
line;  for  the  speech,  like  most  great  works  of  art,  has  a  very 
simple  plan.  Burke  arranged  the  body  of  his  argument 
(paragraphs  14-117)  in  three  natural  divisions:  (1)  a  descrip 
tion  of  the  colonies,  (2)  why  we  must  concede  to  them,  (3)  in 
what  way  we  must  concede.  A  scheme  of  all  the  paragraphs 
may  be  exhibited  thus: 

INTRODUCTION 

a.  Why  he  ventures  to  speak  on  this  * '  awful ' '  sub 
ject   (1-8). 

b.  His  proposition  is  to  obtain  peace  by  conceding 
(9-13). 

I.  A  description  of   the  colonies  and  of  the  character  of 
the  people   (14-47). 

II.  Why  we  ought  to  "admit  the  colonists  to  an  interest 
in  the  British  Constitution"   (48-77). 

III.  The    best   way  of   "admitting  to   an   interest"  is   to 
allow  them  to  grant  their  own  money  voluntarily  (78-117). 

OBJECTIONS 

a.  Answers  two  objections  that  may  be  made  to 
his  own  plan  (118-122). 

b.  Gives    four    objections   to    Lord    North's    plan 
(123-132). 

Peroration:  "Our  country  will  be  rich  and  strong  if  we 
make  it  a  sanctuary  of  English  liberty"  (133-140). 

283 


284  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 


WHERE  BURKE  SPOKE 

All  through  the  middle  ages  the  palace  of  the  Kings  of  Eng 
land  stood  close  to  Westminster  Abbey  on  the  bank  of  the 
Thames,  about  two  miles  west  of  the  limits  of  London.  Its 
"great  hall"  was  a  noble  room  of  oak,  300  feet  long  and  90 
high,  used  for  royal  festivities  and  state  trials.  Projecting 
from  it  was  the  royal  chapel,  named  for  St.  Stephen,  90  feet 
long  and  30  wide.  Two  centuries  before  Burke 's  time  the  palace 
was  abandoned  as  a  royal  residence,  but  the  hall  continued 
its  stately  functions:  it  was  here  that  King  Charles  was  con 
demned  to  death  and  Warren  Hastings  was  impeached.  The 
chapel  was  fitted  up  as  a  House  of  Commons  and  had  been 
so  used  for  220  years  before  Burke  became  a  member. 

The  three  windows  that  used  to  light  the  altar  now  lighted  the 
back  of  the  speaker's  chair,  a  massive  ornamental  panel  of 
gilded  wood  about  ten  feet  high,  surmounted  by  a  carved  scroll 
and  coat  of  arms.  All  around  the  room  ran  five  rows  of  cush 
ioned  benches  with  high  backs,  like  terraces  of  long  pews. 
Twelve  feet  above  these  on  each  side  of  the  room  was  a  very 
narrow  gallery  for  visitors,  supported  by  iron  pillars.  From 
the  high  ceiling  three  large  chandeliers  hung  low  in  the  room, 
each  holding  a  large  cluster  of  candles.  The  speaker  sat  on 
his  throne-like  chair,  robed  in  a  heavy  gown  of  black  and 
wearing  an  ofiicial  wig  that  reached  below  his  shoulders.  Before 
him  was  a  large  table  at  which  the  clerks  sat  and  on  which  the 
great  mace  rested  in  its  rack.  As  the  speaker  looked  over  this 
table,  down  the  length  of  the  room,  he  saw  a  floor  space  about 
50  feet  long. 

On  his  right  sat  the  members  of  the  majority.  The  ministers 
and  leaders  were  in  the  front  row  of  benches  on  the  floor  level, 
clothed  in  court  dress  of  purple  velvet  knee-breeches  and  frock 
coat,  and  wearing  a  small  sword.  On  the  speaker 's  left  were 
the  members  of  the  "opposition."  Burke  doubtless  sat  on 
the  front  bench.  As  he  rose  to  speak,  he  was  within  a  dozen 
feet  of  the  member  on  the  other  side.  All  about  him  was  a 
crowd  of  some  350  aristocratic  members:  some  men  of  literary 


BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  285 

distinction,  dozens  of  military  and  naval  officers,  many  sons  and 
brothers  of  lords,  many  country  gentlemen  of  great  wealth  and 
influence. 

When  he  said  "Sir,"  the  parliamentary  fiction  was  that  he 
was  beginning  an  address  to  the  chair;  it  was  customary  to  say 
frequently  during  a  speech  "Sir"  or  "Mr.  Speaker."  The 
man  in  the  chair  was  Fletcher  Norton,  who  had  been  elected 
to  the  position  as  a  "king's  man"  at  the  time  when  North 
became  prime  minister.  He  was  the  most  adroit  and  unprin 
cipled  lawyer  in  the  country.  He  was  not  dispassionate  as 
a  chairman  should  be,  but  rude  and  violent.  Hence  Burke  knew 
the  members  would  relish  the  irony  of  his  referring  in  the  first 
sentence  to  "the  austerity  of  the  chair." 


NOTES 

The  numbers  refer  to  paragraphs 

1.  An  object  depending.     For  six  weeks  Burke  had  been 
compelled  to  see  North 's  ' '  grand  penal  bill ' '  paSsing  through 
Parliament — a  measure  for  punishing  the  colonies  by  forbid 
ding  them  to  fish  off  Newfoundland.     It  had  passed  Commons 
by  a  large  majority,  was  sure  to  pass  the  Lords,  and  so /'seemed 
to  have  taken  its  flight  forever."     But  strangely  enough  the 
Lords,  wishing  it  to  be  more  strict  in  one  particular,  had  re 
turned   it   to    Commons,    so   that  their   amendment   might   be 
adopted.    When  Burke  came   to  the  House,  his  mind  was  all 
full  of  the  speech  which  he  had  served  formal  notice  that  he 
was  going  to  give — his  ' '  motion. ' '    This  was  the  ' '  object ' '  that 
was  "depending"    (awaiting  settlement).     He  was  so  much 
wrought  up  over  his  purpose  that  this  unexpected  news  of  the 
return  of  the  penal  bill  seemed  a  good  omen.     (In  his  * '  frailty ' ' 
he  felt  a  bit  "  superstitious. ' ') 

Incongruous  mixture.  ' '  Bestraint J '  was  the  ancient  policy 
of  limiting  commerce  to  the  mother  country,  the  policy  of  trade 
laws ;  ' '  coercion ' '  was  the  new  policy  of  the  King  to  compel 
submission  by  punishment.  The  two  were  utterly  incongruous, 
would  not  mix. 

2.  Awful.    Awesome,  profoundly  serious. 

3.  In  February,  1766,  General  Conway  moved  that  the  Stamp 
Act  should  be  repealed.    Burke  used  all  his  powers  in  support 
ing  the  resolution,  and  Pitt  supported  it  with  all  his  weighty 
and  vehement  influence.     "The  colonists,"  he   said,   "would 
have  been  slaves  if  they  had  not  enjoyed  the  right  of  granting 
their  own  money.     I  rejoice  that  America  has  resisted.     Three 
millions  of  people,  so  dead  to  all  feelings  of  liberty  as  volun 
tarily  to  submit  to  be  slaves,  would  have  been  fit  instruments 

286 


NOTES  287 

to  make  slaves  of  the  rest  of  us. ' '  All  the  commercial  interests 
of  the  country  clamored  for  repeal.  Parliament  could  not  resist 
such  pressure;  in  March,  1766,  the  King  was  forced  to  sign  the 
repeal.  Burke  thus  describes  the  emotions  that  were  excited 
when  the  vote  passed  the  House:  "When  the  multitude  saw 
General  Conway,  there  arose  an  involuntary  burst  of  gratulation 
and  transport.  All  England,  all  America,  joined  in  the  ap 
plause.  His  face  was  as  if  it  had  been  the  face  of  an  angel. 
If  I  had  stood  in  that  situation,  I  would  never  have  exchanged 
it  for  all  that  kings  in  their  profusion  could  bestow.7'  Burke 
refers  feelingly  to  that  time.  The  "high  authority "  that  he 
then  felt  was  one  that  genius  might  well  "bow  under." 

4.  Will  not  miscall,  etc.   The  truth  was  that  there  was  open 
rebellion.     Burke  will  not  try  to  conceal  the  fact  by  using  a 
mild  name,  but  he  is  unwilling  to  use  the  terrible  name. 

5.  Beginning  of  jlie  session.     A  new  Parliament  had  been 
elected  four  months  previously. 

Public  tribunal.  During  eight  years  the  King's  ministers 
had  been  in  power;  they  had  been  alternately  "vigorous"  and 
"lenient"  toward  the  colonies.  The  minority  (the  "opposi 
tion"),  to  which  Burke  belonged,  had  found  fault  with  every 
measure,  alternately  calling  the  ministers  "cruel"  and 
"weak."  Hence  Burke 's  party  had  been  as  vacillating  as 
the  ministers.  The  "worthy  member"  had  told  Burke  that 
the  "public  tribunal"  (public  opinion)  would  now  expect  the 
opposition  to  develop  some  settled  policy,  to  have  some  positive 
plan  of  its  own. 

Produce  our  hand.  Since  gentlemen  in  Burke 's  time  com 
monly  played  cards  for  money,  it  was  natural  and  dignified 
for  him  to  use  figures  of  speech  drawn  from  gambling,  like 
this  one :  f '  We  can  no  longer  hold  our  cards  and  bluff ;  we  must 
show  down." 

6.  Worse  qualified.     Burke  knew,  and  the  members  knew, 
that  he  was  the  one  best  qualified  to  speak  on  American  affairsj 
but  here,  as  always,  he  takes  pains  to  speak  of  himself  with 
exaggerated  modesty.    And  we  must  remember  that  in  the  House 
he  was  a  poor  Irishman  who  really  had  not  the  prestige  to 


288  BUKKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

' '  dispose  the  minds ' '  of  aristocratic  members  to  favor  a  motion 
merely  because  he  proposed  it. 

8.  Adventitious.     Due  to  chance — e.  g.,  being  high-born  or 
in  favor  with  the  ministry. 

9.  Fomented  from  principle.     To  foment  is  to   stimulate 
craftily,  to  incite.    The  King 's  guiding  ' '  principle ' '  in  gaining 
power    had   steadily   been    to    " foment    discord"    among    his 
opposers,  to  foment  discord  among  his  subjects.     By  getting 
them  to  quarrel  with  each  other  he  acquired  power.     North's 
"project"  was  intended  to  foment  discord  among  the  colonists. 
Burke  explains  further  in  par.  131. 

Unsuspecting  confidence.  Burke  was  fond  of  quoting  this 
phrase,  which  the  Colonial  Congress  of  1774  had  used  in  de 
scribing  American  feelings  after  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act. 

10.  Refined.     Over-subtle. 
Pruriency.    An  itching  to  hear. 

Agents.  The  colonies  hired  agents  to  lobby  for  them  in  Par 
liament. 

Mace.  In  case  of  a  disturbance  the  speaker  might  order  the 
great  mace  carried  down  the  floor  to  compel  quiet.  This  was 
a  richly  ornamented  staff  about  five  feet  long,  surmounted  by 
•a  heavy  crown. 

11.  One  great  advantage.     The  greatest  advantage  to  a  de 
bater  is  an  admission  by  his  opponent.    If  Lord  North  admitted 
that  conciliation  was  good  policy,  none  of  the  "king's  men" 
could   deny  it.     Even  though  Commons  had  "menaced"  the 
colonies  by  declaring  in  an  "address"  to  the  King  that  they 
would  "stand  by  him  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives  and  property 
against  all  rebellious   attempts,"   and  even  though  they  had 
passed  the  penal  bill  named  in  the  first  paragraph,  still  North 
had  shown  that  conciliation  was  admissible. 

12.  Submission.     This  had  always   been  the  King's  chief 
demand :  the  colonies  must  ' '  submit. ' ' 

Capital.     Of  prime  importance. 

14.  General  theories.  The  kernel  of  Burke 's  wisdom  was 
that  no  progress  in  government  can  ever  be  made  by  theorizing. 
Again  and  again  in  his  writings  he  expresses  his  detestation  of 


NOTES  289 

mere  theories.  The  most  useful  lesson  Americans  can  learn 
from  this  speech  is  that  the  only  path  of  progress  is  to  "con 
sider  the  true  nature  of  things,"  to  observe  facts,  to  meet 
actual  conditions.  Since  most  members  of  the  House  were 
ignorant  of  the  real  nature  of  the  colonies,  Burke  now  pro 
ceeds  (pars.  15-45)  to  explain  it. 

15.  500,000  others.     Negro  slaves. 

16.  Occasional.     Devised  merely  for  an  occasion,  a  -make 
shift. 

Minima.  Petty  matters;  the  law  can  provide  only  for  gen 
eral  conditions. 

17.  A    distinguished    person.      Burke    had    a    fondness    for 
digressing  to  pay  compliments  to  people  whom  he  mentioned, 
or  to  expose  their  weaknesses.    This  Kichard  Glover  had  been  a 
' '  king 's  man ' '  in  Commons,  but  as  he  was  not  then  a  member, 
he  could  not  speak  from  the  floor;  he  had  to  stand  outside  the 
bar  at  the  end  of  the  room  opposite  the  speaker.    Burke 's  flat 
tery  is  one  of  many  indications  of  the  conciliatory  tone  of  the 
speech ;  for  Glover 's  huge  poems  had  no  ' '  fire  of  imagination, ' ' 
and  his  knowledge  of  commerce  was  not  ' '  consummate. ' ' 

19.  State.   Statement. 

20.  African.      The    carrying   of    negro    slaves    to    America. 
Slavery  was  abhorred  in  England  and  had  frequently  been  pro 
tested  against  in  the  colonies;   Burke  avoids  naming  the  dis 
agreeable  subject. 

25.  It  is  good  for  -MS  to  ~be  here.  Peter  said  this  to  Christ 
on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration.  By  merely  applying  the  words 
to  his  subject  Burke  elevates  the  minds  of  his  hearers  for  his 
oratorical  flight  that  follows. 

Lord  Bathurst.  This  is  more  flattery.  Bathurst  was  a  Tory 
and  a  ' '  king 's  man, ' '  who  had  been  made  an  earl  in  the  same 
year  (and  for  the  same  reason)  that  North  was  given  his  blue 
ribbon.  He  was  over  90  years  old;  his  career  in  Commons  be 
gan  before  the  first  George  came  to  England;  and  he  was  an 
interesting  old  ornament  among  the  Lords.  The  Latin  means 
literally :  "To  read  about  the  affairs  of  his  ancestors,  and  he 
will  be  able  to  understand  what  virtue  is." 


288  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

' '  dispose  the  minds ' '  of  aristocratic  members  to  favor  a  motion 
merely  because  he  proposed  it. 

8.  Adventitious.     Due  to  chance — e.  g.,  being  high-born  or 
in  favor  with  the  ministry. 

9.  Fomented  from  principle.     To  foment   is  to   stimulate 
craftily,  to  incite.     The  King 's  guiding  ( t  principle ' '  in  gaining 
power    had    steadily   been    to    "foment    discord"    among    his 
opposers,  to  foment  discord  among  his  subjects.     By  getting 
them  to  quarrel  with  each  other  he  acquired  power.     North's 
"  project "  was  intended  to  foment  discord  among  the  colonists. 
Burke  explains  further  in  par.  131. 

Unsuspecting  confidence.  Burke  was  fond  of  quoting  this 
phrase,  which  the  Colonial  Congress  of  1774  had  used  in  de 
scribing  American  feelings  after  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act. 

10.  Refined.     Over-subtle. 
Pruriency.    An  itching  to  hear. 

Agents.  The  colonies  hired  agents  to  lobby  for  them  in  Par 
liament. 

Mace.  In  case  of  a  disturbance  the  speaker  might  order  the 
great  mace  carried  down  the  floor  to  compel  quiet.  This  was 
a  richly  ornamented  staff  about  five  feet  long,  surmounted  by 
•&  heavy  crown. 

11.  One  great  advantage.     The  greatest  advantage  to  a  de 
bater  is  an  admission  by  his  opponent.    If  Lord  North  admitted 
that  conciliation  was  good  policy,  none  of  the  "king's  men" 
could   deny  it.     Even  though  Commons  had  "menaced"  the 
colonies  by  declaring  in  an  "address"  to  the  King  that  they 
would  ' '  stand  by  him  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives  and  property 
against  all  rebellious   attempts, ' '  and  even  though  they  had 
passed  the  penal  bill  named  in  the  first  paragraph,  still  North 
had  shown  that  conciliation  was  admissible. 

12.  Submission.     This  had  always   been  the  King's  chief 
demand:  the  colonies  must  "submit." 

Capital.     Of  prime  importance. 

14.  General  theories.  The  kernel  of  Burke 's  wisdom  was 
that  no  progress  in  government  can  ever  be  made  by  theorizing. 
Again  and  again  in  his  writings  he  expresses  his  detestation  of 


NOTES  289 

mere  theories.  The  most  useful  lesson  Americans  can  learn 
from  this  speech  is  that  the  only  path  of  progress  is  to  "con 
sider  the  true  nature  of  things,"  to  observe  facts,  to  meet 
actual  conditions.  Since  most  members  of  the  House  were 
ignorant  of  the  real  nature  of  the  colonies,  Burke  now  pro 
ceeds  (pars.  15-45)  to  explain  it. 

15.  500,000  others.     Negro  slaves. 

16.  Occasional.     Devised  merely  for  an  occasion,  a  make 
shift. 

Minima.  Petty  matters;  the  law  can  provide  only  for  gen 
eral  conditions. 

17.  A    distinguished    person.      Burke    had    a    fondness    for 
digressing  to  pay  compliments  to  people  whom  he  mentioned, 
or  to  expose  their  weaknesses.    This  Kichard  Glover  had  been  a 
1 '  king 's  man ' '  in  Commons,  but  as  he  was  not  then  a  member, 
he  could  not  speak  from  the  floor;  he  had  to  stand  outside  the 
bar  at  the  end  of  the  room  opposite  the  speaker.    Burke 's  flat 
tery  is  one  of  many  indications  of  the  conciliatory  tone  of  the 
speech ;  for  Glover 's  huge  poems  had  no  1 1  fire  of  imagination, ' ' 
and  his  knowledge  of  commerce  was  not  ' '  consummate. ' ' 

19.  State.   Statement. 

20.  African.     The   carrying   of    negro    slaves    to    America. 
Slavery  was  abhorred  in  England  and  had  frequently  been  pro 
tested  against  in  the  colonies;   Burke  avoids  naming  the  dis 
agreeable  subject. 

25.  It  is  good  for  its  to  ~be  here.  Peter  said  this  to  Christ 
on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration.  By  merely  applying  the  words 
to  his  subject  Burke  elevates  the  minds  of  his  hearers  for  his 
oratorical  flight  that  follows. 

Lord  Bathurst.  This  is  more  flattery.  Bathurst  was  a  Tory 
and  a  ' '  king 's  man, ' '  who  had  been  made  an  earl  in  the  same 
year  (and  for  the  same  reason)  that  North  was  given  his  blue 
ribbon.  He  was  over  90  years  old;  his  career  in  Commons  be 
gan  before  the  first  George  came  to  England;  and  he  was  an 
interesting  old  ornament  among  the  Lords.  The  Latin  means 
literally:  "To  read  about  the  affairs  of  his  ancestors,  and  he 
will  be  able  to  understand  what  virtue  is." 


290 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 


His  son.  The  younger  Bathurst  was  a  peculiarly  incompetent 
judge  whom  the  King  made  Lord  Chancellor  in  1771.  He  used 
his  influence  with  the  King  (who  is  "the  fountain  of  hereditary 
dignity "  because  he  creates  lords)  to  get  his  father  raised  to 
a  higher  rank  in  the  peerage — i.  e.,  from  baron  to  earl — in 
1772.  Burke  might  have  waxed  sarcastic  about  this  on  another 
occasion,  but  here  uses  only  a  tinge  of  irony. 

29.  Roman  charity.    Referring  to  a  story  of  a  young  Roman 
woman  who  kept  her  imprisoned  father  alive  with  the  milk  from 
her  breast. 

30.  Excite  your   envy.    In   discussing  the  penal  bill   some 
members  had  shown   the  feeling  that  if  the  cod  fisheries  of 
Newfoundland  were  so  valuable,  England  could  profit  by  de 
priving  the  colonies  of  the  use  of  them. 

Frozen  Serpent.  A  group  of  stars  about  as  near  the  south 
pole  as  the  Big  Dipper  is  near  the  north  pole. 

Falkland  Island.  These  islands  in  the  Atlantic,  off  the  tip 
of  South  America,  were  so  barren  that  until  1763  no  " nation's 
ambition "  had  thought  it  worth  while  to  claim  them.  Burke 
mentions  them  because  in  1770  the  Spaniards  had  destroyed  the 
English  garrison,  and  war  had  been  imminent. 

"Run  the  longitude.  In  nautical  language  "to  run  down  the 
longitude "  means  to  sail  east  or  west  until  the  longitude  of  a 
given  place  is  reached. 

32.  When  Burke  has  completed  his  description  of  the  popu 
lation  and  wealth  of  the  colonies,  he  turns  aside  (pars.  32-36) 
to  give  four  objections  to  the  policy  of  coercing  them.  This 
is  a  kind  of  punctuation  mark  between  his  array  of  facts  just 
given  and  his  analysis  of  "the  temper  and  character"  that 
follows  in  paragraphs  37-45. 

Complexions.  Characters.  Even  General  Gage,  who  had  com 
manded  colonial  soldiers  and  had  been  liked  at  Boston,  thought 
that  a  military  force  should  be  used  to  bring  the  colonies  to 
submission.  His  opinions  had  weight  in  Commons;  Burke 
refers  to  his  testimony  (par.  43). 

38.     Jealous  affection.    Burke  speaks  in  another  speech  about 


NOTES  291 

"men   of   a   jealous   honor,"    meaning    "anxiously   concerned 
about  their  honor." 

Shuffle  by  chicane.  To  remove  in  an  underhand  way  by  legal 
trickery. 

39.  The  topic  of  this  paragraph  is  announced  as  "English 
descent,"  but  the  real  subject  is  "English  freedom  has  always 
been  measured  by  the  principle  of  taxation."    Fix  your  mind 
on  ' 'taxation."    "When  this  part  of  your  character  was  most 
predominant"  means  from  1620  to  1650 — the  time  during  which 
Hampden  refused  to  pay  the  ship-money.    This  was  not  a  matter 
of  money  with  Hampden ;  he  was  one  of  ' '  the  greatest  spirits ' ' 
who  were  establishing  liberty. 

40.  Popular  ....  merely  ....  representative.    The  colon 
ial  legislatures  ("assemblies")   consisted  of  two  houses.    The 
lower  was  elected  by  the  people  ("popular") ;  the  upper  was  in 
most  colonies  appointed  by  the  king.    But  in  some  colonies  the 
legislature  was  entirely  ("merely")  elected  by  the  people.    In 
all  the  colonies  the  lower  house  (the  "popular  representative") 
was  the  more  influential  ("weighty"). 

41.  As  in  their  history.    The  point  is  this:  since  the  church 
has  usually  in  European  history  been  supported  by  the  govern 
ment,  membership  in  the  church  has  usually  taught  obedience 
to  government;   but  the  Protestant  dissenters  who  emigrated 
to  New  England  originated  their  church  in  opposition  to  gov 
ernment. 

43.  Education.  The  subject  of  the  paragraph  is  not  "edu 
cation"  in  general;  that  was  not  in  Burke 's  mind.  He  is 
talking  about  legal  training.  Blackstone's  Commentaries  on  the 
Laws  of  England  was  published  while  Burke  was  a  new  mem 
ber  of  Commons.  It  was  so  thorough  and  useful  a  book  that  it 
is  still  used  in  American  law  schools. 

On  the  floor.  Some  one  who  sat  opposite  Burke  was  taking 
notes;  he  sat  on  the  front,  the  lowest  bench,  the  one  on  the 
floor. 

Litigious.    Eager  to  go  to  law. 

Abeunt,  etc.  What  men  study  is  transformed  into  their  cus 
toms. 


292  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

Mercurial  cast.     A  lively  temperament. 
Augur.     To  foretell  by  signs  or  omens. 

44.  Disobedient.     The  King's  majority  in  Parliament  felt 
that  the  colonies  must  be  made  "obedient."     Burke  merely 
waters  to  their  way   of  thinking  when  he  says  "disobedient 
spirit. ' ' 

Moral.  In  the  Latin  sense  of  "pertaining  to  customs,"  as 
in  the  mores  of  his  Latin  quotation.  The  colonies  are  "accus 
tomed"  to  popular  government,  dissident  religion,  etc. 

Winged  ministers,  etc.  Jove 's  eagle  carried  the  thunderbolts 
in  his  claws  ("pounces");  Burke  means  by  this  allusion  the 
warships  that  carried  munitions  to  America. 

Truck  and  huckster.  To  bargain  in  a  petty  way  and  to  haggle 
about  a  price. 

45.  Power  in  England.    The  King's  ministry  may  have  been 
within  the  law,  but  the  way  they  used  their  power  was  not  in 
accordance  with  English  ideas  of  freedom. 

46.  Burke  now  (pars.  46-64)  proposes  the  only  three  possible 
ways  of  dealing  with  America,  and  shows  that  the  first  two  are 
absurd. 

Politics.    General  ideas  about  government. 

Monsters.  It  is  difficult  for  a  young  American  to  see  what 
"monster"  is  described  in  this  paragraph  and  the  next.  Con 
sider,  in  the  first  place,  that  even  nowadays  it  is  an  extremely 
"laborious  business  to  establish  a  government  wholly  new." 
In  1918  three  nations  (Mexico,  China,  and  Eussia)  'were  show 
ing  themselves  unable  even  to  change  their  governments  suc 
cessfully.  Government  is  an  extremely  complicated  adjustment 
of  millions  of  selfish  interests;  it  is  almost  like  a  living  crea 
ture,  almost  as  impossible  to  make  as  it  would  be  to  create  an 
animal.  In  the  second  place,  Burke  was  forever  trying  to  teach 
his  generation  this  truth,  forever  inveighing  against  the  fools 
who  wanted  to  tamper  and  experiment  with  government.  He 
knew  the  immense  evil  that  may  be  done  by  upsetting  long- 
established  beliefs  about  religion  or  government.  For  these 
are  the  old  wisdom  of  the  whole  race;  they  can  safely  be 
changed  only  gradually  and  naturally.  Hence  he  felt  that  a 


NOTES  293 

successful  rebellion  in  the  colonies  would  be  "a  concussion  of 
established  opinions"  at  home.  He  was  not  merely  a  conserva 
tive;  he  expected  development  and  reform.  But  his  keen  senses 
perceived  the  fearful  dangers.  A  "loosening  of  all  ties"  was 
to  him  a  destructive  monster.  And,  in  the  third  place,  he  was 
thinking  of  a  much  less  philosophical  monster:  if  the  colonies 
discovered  that  they  could  get  along  perfectly  well  without  the 
guardianship  of  the  mother  country,  they  would  have  less  fear 
of  internal  disorder  in  case  they  wanted  a  revolution. 

Emanation.  The  only  legal  basis  for  government  in  the  col 
onies  was  the  charters  by  which  they  were  established.  If  these 
were  removed,  no  machinery  of  government  would  be  left;  there 
would  be,  theoretically,  no  way  of  enforcing  law  and  order. 

Operose.     Laboriously  difficult. 

Humors.     Dispositions  or  moods — as  in  "an  ugly  humor." 

47.  Abrogated  government.     Abolished   (in  1774),  so  that 
the  King's  power  was  supreme  and  the  government  was  no 
longer  representative. 

Anarchy.  If  you  can  imagine  a  city  in  which  the  police 
force  and  all  the  law  courts  are  paralyzed,  you  can  feebly  real 
ize  how  terrified  the  ministry  supposed  the  colonists  would  be. 

The  last  sentence  of  the  paragraph  states  exactly  why  the 
Revolution  was  a  civil  war:  every  argument  against  the  free 
dom  of  the  English  in  America  was  equally  an  argument  against 
the  liberties  of  the  people  in  England. 

48.  Giving  up  the  colonies.    This  idea  was  advanced  by  the 
dean  of  Gloucester,  whom  Burke  called  "an  advocate  of  the 
court  faction,  a  Dr.  Tucker,  whose  earnest  labors  in  this  vine 
yard    [of   pamphleteering]    will,   I   suppose,   raise    him    to   a 
bishopric. ' ' 

49.  Radical.    Going  to  the  root  of  a  matter. 

50.  In  paragraphs  50-58  Burke  reviews  his  three  considera 
tions  of  population,  wealth,  and  character;  and  the  six  causes 
of  the  character.    But  the  six  causes  are  not  taken  up  in  just 
their  original  order. 

53.  System  of  this  kind.  The  over-stringent  trade  regula 
tions. 


294          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

Spoliatis,  etc.    Those  who  have  been  despoiled  still  have  arms. 

60.  England  was  dealing  at  home  with  great  mobs  and  an 
organized  system  of  smuggling;  she  applied  to  these  law-break 
ers  the  ordinary  ideas  of  criminal  justice.     But  the  colonial 
disturbances — even  the  Boston  Tea  Party — represented  the  uni 
fied,  sober  opinion  of  a  whole  people;  it  was  "a  great  public 
contest. ' '    The  sentence  about  ' '  an  indictment  against  a  whole 
people "  has  been  constantly  quoted,  and  is  frequently  seen  in 
American  editorials. 

Sir  Edward  Coke.  ' '  That  great  oracle  of  the  English  law, ' ' 
as  Burke  elsewhere  calls  him,  addressed  to  Ealeigh  such  expres 
sions  as  "Thou  art  a  spider  of  hell";  " there  never  lived  a 
viler  viper."  But  probably  no  member  of  Commons  in  1775 
knew  what  Coke  had  said  nearly  two  centuries  before.  Why 
should  Burke  mention  those  unknown  insults?  Because  every 
one  who  heard  him  thought  instantly  of  Wedderburn,  a  "king's 
man,"  who,  in  1771,  deserted  Burke 's  party,  sold  himself  to 
North,  was  made  solicitor-general,  and  in  1774,  at  a  state  trial 
before  the  privy  council  of  the  kingdom,  most  vilely  insulted  one 
excellent  individual — Benjamin  Franklin.  This  venerable  Amer 
ican,  honored  everywhere  in  Europe  and  loved  in  England,  was 
compelled  to  stand  for  a  whole  hour  before  the  laughing  coun 
cillors  while  the  renegade  judge  used  such  expressions  as  "He 
had  the  most  malignant  of  purposes";  "lie  expresses  the  cool 
est  and  most  deliberate  malice";  "is  not  the  revengeful  temper 
of  the  bloody  African  surpassed  by  the  coolness  of  the  wily 
American?"  Burke  was  horror-struck  by  this  address.  Even 
Lord  North  saw  the  insane  folly  of  it.  Twenty  years  after  the 
Revolution  was  over  Fox  could  rouse  the  House  by  describing 
this  scene — infinitely  more  shameful  and  less  excusable  than 
the  one  in  which  Raleigh  was  insulted.  It  is  possible  that  Burke 
used  Franklin 's  name  in  speaking,  but  changed  to  Raleigh  when 
he  wrote  his  speech. 

61.  Nice.     Delicate  and  difficult  to  adjust. 

Ex  m  termini.     From  the  very  meaning  of  the  expression. 
63.     On  our  address.    Because  of  addresses  to  the  King,  put 
through  Commons  by  North,  urging  him  to  coerce  the  colonies. 


NOTES  295 

66.  Fix  your  attention  on  "are  taxed."     Burke 's  argument 
has  nothing  to  say  about  representation  for  the  colonies — except 
to  deny  that  representation  is  desirable. 

67.  Fix  your  attention  on  the  italicized  word  right.     Burke 
has  a  great  deal  to  say  about  taxation,  but  nothing  about  the 
question  of  the  abstract  right. 

Polity.     Government. 

Great  names.  Pitt  and  Lord  Chancellor  Camden  believed 
that  England  had  not  even  the  abstract  right  to  tax  the  col 
onies.  Burke  and  most  thoughtful  men  believed  the  contrary. 

The  quotation  is  from  Paradise  Lost,  Book  II. 

68.  Notice  that  the  whole  point  depends  upon  the  if  in  the 
first  sentence;  Burke  names  an  utterly  impossible  condition. 

69.  "Admitting    to    an    interest"    is    not    representation. 
High-school   students  naturally  jump   to   that  conclusion,   but 
Burke 's  method  of  admitting  to  an  interest  is  entirely  different. 

70.  Understood  principle.    The  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  was 
an  announcement  that  England  did  not  intend  to  exercise  the 
right  of  taxing.     But  the  repeal  was  accompanied  by  an  act 
declaring  that  the  right  to  tax  still  remained — that  "the  prin 
ciple  was  understood." 

71.  Financiers.     Men  who  had  charge  of  national  finances 
no  longer  expected  income  from  American  taxation;  they  were 
simply  afraid  of  losing  control  in  all  ways  if  they  yielded  in 
this  particular. 

Exquisite.     Anxious  about  the  future. 

Paragraphs  72-74  are  a  very  pretty  demonstration  that  the 
King's  ministers  had  never  been  primarily  concerned  with  an 
income  from  American  taxation;  their  royal  master  wanted 
submission.  When  the  trade  laws  had  been  enforced  with  a 
fierce  stringency,  the  reason  avowed  in  Commons  was  the  need 
of  an  income  from  America.  North  had  repeatedly  argued  that 
the  purpose  of  trade  laws  was  income.  So  paragraph  72  means: 
' '  Very  well,  my  lord,  if  the  Americans  yield  so  much  from  their 
commerce,  surely  it  is  unreasonable  to  tax  them  in  addition"; 
to  which  the  noble  lord  replies,  "Oh,  trade  laws  don't  really 
restrict,  don't  really  extract  money  from  the  Colonists."  And 


296  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

paragraph  73  is  like  this  bit  of  dialogue:  "But  you  see,  my 
lord,  that  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  get  any  income  from  tax 
ation  " ;  to  which  North  replies,  ' '  Oh,  I  know,  but  we  must  pre 
serve  our  precious  trade  laws  that  bring  in  so  much  money." 

74.  The   pamphlet.      North    had    used    arguments    from    a 
pamphlet  by  Dr.  Tucker. 

Laws,  regulations.  The  " revenue  laws"  are  laws  for  taxa 
tion  ;  the  * '  commercial  regulations ' '  are  for  restraining  trade. 

75.  Not  a  shadow  of  evidence.    In  his  great  speech  on  Amer 
ican  Taxation,  delivered  eleven  months  previously,  Burke  had 
argued  this  point  at  great  length,  vehemently  and  conclusively; 
he  exposed  the  whole  pitiful  series  of  lies  and  quibbles  and 
evasions  by  which  the  King's  mouthpieces  had  defended  their 
schemes  for  taxation. 

76.  The  colonies  will  go  further.     In  American  Taxation 
Burke  had  said:  "But  still  it  sticks  in  our  throats — if  we  go 
so  far,  the  Americans  will  go  further."     It  was  an  argument 
that  the  ministers  had  continually  used  for  a  decade. 

79.  Philip  the  Second.     The  powerful  and  despotic  king  of 
Spain,  who  sent  the  Armada  against  England. 

Four  examples.  In  paragraphs  78-88  there  are  four  exam 
ples  of  admitting  to  an  interest  in  the  British  Constitution. 
They  are  simply  examples  of  admitting  to  an  interest.  The 
way  in  which  these  four  places  were  admitted  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  case. 

80.  The  English  conquest.     In  the  twelfth  century. 

Irish  pensioners.  Men  whose  pensions  were  paid  out  of  the 
grants  made  by  the  Irish  parliament. 

81.  Lords  Marchers.    ' '  Lords  of  the  borders ' '  between  Eng 
land  and  her  dependencies  on  the  west  and  north — i.  e.,  Wales 
and  Scotland. 

83.  Incubus.    A  demon  that  caused  nightmare. 

84.  In  the  twelfth  ode  of  his  first  book  Horace  is  describing 
the  power  that  Castor  and  Pollux  have  over  the  stormy  sea: 
"As  soon  as  their  clear  star  shines  upon  the  sailors,  the  spray 
flows  down  from  the  rocks,  the  winds  die  down,  the  clouds  flee 


NOTES  297 

away,  and  (since  it  is  their  will)  the  wave  subsides  upon  the 
sea." 

85.  The  petition  of  Chester  is  composed  of  two  reasons  and 
a    therefore:      "The    inhabitants    of    Chester    show    to    your 
majesty  that   (1)    whereas  we  have  had  no  representatives  in 
Parliament,  and  (2)  whereas  we  have  been  bound  by  the  laws 
just  as  much  as  the  counties  that  have  representatives,  there 
fore  we  have  been  touched  and  grieved." 

86.  These  questions  are  repetitions   of   violent   expressions 
used  by  "king's -men"  in  advising  Parliament  how  to  treat 
petitions  from  the  Americans. 

87.  Abstract    extent.      That    is,    Parliament    remedied    the 
grievance  "on  the  understood  principle"  that  it  still  had  the 
abstract  right  to  collect  subsidies  if  it  chose. 

89.  Students  who  have   not  been  specially  warned   almost 
always  suppose,  as  Burke 's  auditors  did,  that  we  are  now  going 
to  hear  about  a  scheme  for  giving  representation  to  the  colonies. 
Nothing  of  the  sort. 

Opposuit.     Nature  has  raised  a  barrier. 

90.  Republic,  etc.     These  are  the  names  of  three  books  that 
describe   ideal    governments.      They   were    written    twenty-one 
centuries,  three  centuries,  and  one  century,  respectively,  before 
Burke 's  time. 

The  quotation  is  from  Comus. 

Representation.  The  emphasis  is  not  upon  this  word,  but 
upon  the  "policy" — namely,  that  taxation  was  unjust  unless 
there  was  representation. 

91.  By  grant.     Here  is  Burke 's  method  of  admitting  the 
colonies  to  an  interest  in  the  Constitution — by  allowing  them 
to  grant  their  own  money  voluntarily.     "Taxation  by  grant" 
is  a  very  peculiar  expression,  for  the  two  nouns  have  exactly 
opposite  meanings.    It  is  somewhat  like  an  Irish  bull,  meaning : 
' '  The  just  way  to  tax  America  is  not  to  tax  her  at  all. '  * 

Imposition.    Taxation  imposed  by  Parliament. 
The  six  italicized  expressons  do  not  correspond  to  the   six 
propositions  that  he  announces  in  the  next  paragraph. 

93-108.     Students  are  often  puzzled  by  the  nature  of  these 


298          BUBKE'S  SPEECH  ON  COJN FILIATION 

resolutions.  Any  ordinary  motion  offered  in  a  meeting  proposes 
eome  action;  it  is  debatable.  But  why  should  anyone  ever 
"move  that  2+3=5"?  The  colonies  had  never  had  repre 
sentatives  in  Parliament;  why  "resolve  that  they  never  have 
had"?  The  answer  is  brief:  customary  forms  are  strange 
things,  and  parliamentary  form  made  it  natural  for  Burke  to 
put  his  propositions  in  this  shape.  The  first  five  are  statements 
of  merest  fact — except  possibly  for  "touched  and  grieved" 
in  the  second;  that  is  why  Burke  devotes  a  long  paragraph 
(96)  to  showing  that  the  colonies  were  touched  and  grieved. 
But  the  sixth  contains  a  real  resolution;  to  have  carried  that 
would  have  been  to  defeat  George  III. 

95.  Horace   begins  a  satire   by  remarking  in    parenthesis, 
* '  This  is  no  discourse  of  mine,  but  what  Of ellus  teaches,  a 
rustic,  self-taught  fellow."     So  Burke  says  that  he  is  offering 
what  is  taught  by  the  rustic,  home-bred  sense  of  his  country 
(not  by  the  craft  of  a  king  from  Hanover). 

96.  The  sixth.     Parliamentary  acts  were  numbered  by  the 
year  of  the  reign;  the  sixth  year  of  George  the  Second's  reign 
was  1733. 

For  the  ministry.  A  whole  chapter  of  Germanic  lying  and 
intriguing  is  implied  in  those  three  words.  In  American  Taxa 
tion  there  is  a  long  and  bitter  passage  in  which  Burke  flays 
Lord  Hillsborough.  See  introduction,  page  34,  for  an  account 
of  the  secret  letter  which  Hillsborough  wrote  to  trick  the 
colonists.  Of  course  this  letter  was  ultimately  known  about  in 
England.  It  became  a  public  acknowledgment  by  the  ministry 
that  * '  duties  had  been  laid  contrary  to  the  true  principle  of 
commerce,"  and  that  "only  men  with  factious  and  seditious 
views  could  propose  to  tax  America."  The  lying  letter  could 
never  have  been  written,  would  have  had  no  point,  unless  the 
ministers  knew  that  the  colonies  were  touched  and  grieved. 

97.  Is   impossible.     In    his    Observations    on    The    Present 
State  of  the  Nation  Burke  draws  an  amusing  picture  of  how 
impossible   representation   would   have   been   in   an    age   when 
six  weeks  was  record  time  for  a  trip  across  the  Atlantic,  and 
twenty    (or  even   forty)    not   unusual.     Here  is  one   extract: 


NOTES  299 

"  However,  we  will  suppose  the  American  candidates  once  more 
elected  [after  two  round  trips  of  6000  miles  each]  and  steering 
again  to  old  England  with  a  good  heart  and  a  fair  westerly 
wind  in  their  stern.  On  their  arrival  they  find  all  in  a  hurry  and 
bustle.  The  King  is  dead!  Another  parliament  is  to  be  called. 
Away  back  to  America  again  on  a  third  voyage  and  to  a  third 
election. ' ' 

99.  Competence.  This  legal  distinction  of  the  "  competence ' ' 
of  the  colonies  to  grant  seems  to  us  now  like  an  empty  theory 
or  quibble.     But  it  went  to  the  root  of  the  whole  matter.     To 
admit  formally  such  a  legal  competence  was  to  admit  that  the 
colonial   assemblies  were  legally  on   a   level  with  Parliament. 
Such   competence  had   never   been   admitted,   though   England 
had  accepted  the  grants. 

His  Majesty — .  Burke  pretends  that  he  was  about  to  say, 
"His  Majesty  has  committed  impeachable  offenses,"  but  that 
he  changes  to  "the  ministers"  so  as  not  to  use  unparliamentary 
language.  Legally  ' '  the  king  can  do  no  wrong "  j  his  ministers 
are  responsible. 

100.  So  high  as.    So  far  back  as. 

Taxes.  These  were  taxes  that  the  colonies  laid  upon  them 
selves. 

106.  The  sixth  resolution  is  the  one  that  counts,  for  the 
whole  struggle  reduced  to  this  question :  Does  taxation  conduce 
to  public  benefit  ("service")  I 

109.  Of  the  five  resolutions  here  lumped  together  the  first 
is  for  removing  the  obnoxious  duties;   the  other  four  are  for 
removing  penal  acts. 

110-113.  The  five  resolutions  are  not  commented  on  in  the 
order  in  which  they  are  given,  but  in  the  order  2,  4,  3,  5. 

110.  Partial.     Prejudiced,  unfair.     The  same  meaning  is  in 
partially  at  the  end  of  the  paragraph. 

111.  Eeturning-offi-cer,    cause.      The    officer   who    selected   a 
jury,  a  law-case. 

112.  Murder.     This  refers  to  soldiers  who,  under  military 
orders,  killed  Americans. 

114.     Judicature.     System  of  courts.     The  point  of  the  reso- 


300  BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

lution  is  that  Americans  could  not  be  sure  of  just  judges  un 
less  two  conditions  were  fulfilled:  (1)  that  the  judges  got 
their  pay  from  the  colonists,  (2)  that  they  held  office  until 
the  colonists  complained  of  them.  Under  these  two  conditions 
the  king  could  have  no  power  over  a  judge. 

115.  The  courts  of  admiralty  tried  all  cases  under  the  trade 
laws.  Two  reforms  are  proposed:  (1)  to  locate  them  at  such 
ports  that  captains  could  have  their  cases  tried  promptly,  (2) 
to  give  the  judges  salaries  instead  of  letting  them  derive  their 
income  "indecently"  from  the  share  of  the  smuggled  goods 
that  they  condemned. 

119.  Lord  Chatham.   The  elder  Pitt. 

Not  from  the  Chester  act.  Because  the  people  of  Chester  had 
made  a  general  complaint  against  being  bound  by  English  laws; 
Durham  had,  like  the  colonies,  complained  only  of  a  form  of 
taxation. 

De  jwre,  de  facto.    Legally,  as  a  matter  of  fact. 

120.  Illation.     Inference. 

To  make  slaves  haughty.  A  slave  -in  the  house  of  a  wealthy 
patrician  may  feel  haughty  when  he  compares  himself  with  a 
freeman  who  is  a  poor  laborer;  yet,  even  if  this  is  so,  we  need 
not  expect  that  the  colonists  will  care  to  be  slaves  in  the  proud 
household  of  our  empire. 

Cords  of  a  man.  In  the  llth  chapter  of  Hosea  God  describes 
how  he  tried  to  keep  the  love  of  the  Israelites:  "I  drew  them 
with  cords  of  a  man,  with  bands  of  love." 

122.  "Would  dissolve  the  unity"  is  the  second  objection. 
Burke  said  ' '  some ' '  in  118,  but  he  names  only  two.  In  the 
Letter  to  the  Sheriffs  of  Bristol  he  spoke  sarcastically  (as  he 
does  here)  about  "troubling  our  understandings  with  specu 
lations  concerning  the  unity  of  empire."  To  him  this  talk 
about  "unity"  was  silly  metaphysics. 

124.  Experimentum,  etc.     Experiment  upon  some  worthless 
object. 

125.  Here   is   a   demonstration   of   how  the   project   would 
cause  a  most  dangerous  increase  of  the  King  'a  power. 

126.  Contingent.     Quota  of  revenue. 


BUB-KE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  3Q1 

127.  Five  ' '  difficulties ' '  are  discussed,  one  in  each  of  para 
graphs  127-131. 

128.  Outcry.     Announcement  that  an  auction  is  to  be  held. 
Composition.     Terms  of  agreement  by  which  a  creditor  ac 
cepts  a  smaller  payment  than  is  due. 

130.  Extent.  A  legal  process  for  seizing  a  debtor 's  property 
to  compel  payment. 

132.  Contingent.    Depending  on  chance. 

.To  spare  it  altogether.  He  did  speak  on  the  subject  at  least 
twice  more,  though  never  in  a  long,  formal  effort.  In  November 
of  1776  he  withdrew  for  fifteen  months  from  all  discussions  of 
American  affairs,  because  he  wanted  the  world  to  know  that 
he  had  no  hand  in  such  ruinous  legislation. 

133.  Posita,  etc.    The  game  is  played  with  the  whole  money- 
chest  at  stake. 

Accumulated  a  debt.  People  had  shown  their  patriotism  by 
lending  money;  the  country  owed  the  debt  to  its  citizens. 

134.  Absolute  power.     These  words   here   and  "a,  govern 
ment  purely  arbitrary"  in  120  are  colorless  for  us  today,  but 
to  Burke  they  were  the  lurid  realities  of  the  ambition  of   a 
German  king. 

The  quotation  is  from  the  fourth  book  of  Paradise  Lost. 

135.  Compounding.    See  composition,  paragraph  128. 
Speed.     Succeed. 

136.  Taxable   objects.      For    example,    on    tobacco    shipped 
from  Virginia  a  duty  was  paid  at  London  by  the  English  mer 
chant;   then  the  merchant  shipped  to  France  and   sold  for  a 
price  that  would  pay  the  duty  and  yield  him  a  good  profit  in 
addition. 

137.  In  this  peroration  we  see  why  Burke  was  so  scornful 
of  the  arguments  of  "king's  men"  about  "unity"  of  empire. 
He  says  in  this  burst  of  feeling — as  true  and  sensible  as  it  is 
eloquent — that    ' '  participation    of    freedom    is    the    sole    bond 
that  made  and  must  always  preserve  the  unity  of  empire. ' '    This 
single  sentence  sums  up  the  whole  difference  between  the  Han 
over  conception  of  empire  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  conception. 


302          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

138.  Land  Tax  Act,  etc.     These  three  acts,  providing  for 
revenue  and  an  army,  had  to  be  passed  every  year;  hence  Par 
liament  had  to  be  summoned  every  year,  and  a  king  had  no 
chance  to  rule  without  Commons.     It  was  therefore  natural  for 
Englishmen  to  think  that  these  bills  were  the  guaranty  of  their 
liberties. 

139.  Burke   here   carries   out  his  figure   of  a  "temple   of 
concord "  (92)  and  an  "altar  of  peace"  (95)  by  using  profane 
and  initiated.     Men  like  North  and  Hillsborough  were  "unfit 
to  enter  the  temple";  men  of  Burke 's  party  had  been  "ad 
mitted  to  the  sacred  rites."     If  all  the  members  had  glowed 
with  zeal  for  wise  government,  they  would  have  begun  their 
proceedings  with  a  sacred  rite    ("auspicate"),  saying,  as  a 
priest  does  when  he  prepares  the  sacrament,   ' '  Lift  tip  your 
hearts." 

140.  Quod  felix,  etc.     May  it  be  prosperous  and  of  good 
omen. 


A  BRIEF  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1.  Some  of  the  best  descriptions  of  the  nature  of  the  Amer 
ican  Revolution: 

Tlie  American  Revolution,  by  John  Fiske,  vol.  I,  chapters 

1-3. 
The   American   Revolution,    by   G.  O.    Trevelyan,    Part    I, 

chapters  2-8;    Part  II,  vol.  I. 

George  the  Third  and  Charles  Fox,  by  G.  O.  Trevelyan. 
A  History  of  the  English  People,  by  J.  R.  Green,  Book  IX, 

chapter  2. 
History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  by  W.  E.  H. 

Lecky,  vol.  Ill,  chapters  10,  11,  and  12. 
History  of  the  American  People,  by  Woodrow  Wilson,  vol. 

II,  chapter  3. 

Lecky   gives   the   most    detailed  account   of   the   power   of 
George  III. 

2.  A  striking   (and  quite  reliable)    revelation  of  the  power 
of  George  III  is  Burke 's  Thoughts  on  the  Cause  of  the  Present 
Discontents.     His    speech   on   American    Taxation   illuminates 
many  parts  of  the  Conciliation,  and  his  Letter  to  tfa  Sheriffs 
of  Bristol  shows  his  bitter  feeling  against  -the  Teutonic  machina 
tions  that  had  made  conciliation  almost  impossible. 

3.  Better  insight  into  the  conditions  that  produced  the  Concili 
ation  can  be  gained  by  reading  about  prominent  statesmen  of 
the  time  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography,  the  Encyclo 
pedia  Britannica,  or  any  other  good  encyclopedia.     Most  en 
lightening  are  the  lives  of  John  Stuart  (third  Earl  of  Bute) 
and  Frederick  North.    Others  (approximately  in  order  of  direct 
usefulness)  are  Alexander  Wedderburn,  Fletcher  Norton,  John 
Dunning,  William  Pitt  (the  elder),  the  two  Bathursts,  Charles 
James  Fox,   Charles  Townshend,  George  Grenville. 

4.  Anyone  who  can  get  access  to  the  Parliamentary  Hi-story 
will  be   abundantly   repaid   for  looking  through  the  recorded 
speeches  of  the  session  from  December,  1774,  to  April,  1776. 

303 


APPENDIX 

(Adapted,  and  enlarged,  from  the  Manual  for  the  Study  of 
English  Classics,  by  George  L.  Marsh) 

HELPS   TO    STUDY 
LIFE  AND  WORKS  OF  BURKE 

When  and  where  was  Burke  born  (p.  22)  ?  Where  was  he 
educated?  For  what  purpose  and  when  did  he  go  to  London? 

What  was  his  first  literary  work  (p.  22)  ? 

What  annual  publication  was  he  associated  with  for  many 
years?  In  what  ways  did  he  prepare  himself  for  his  future 
work? 

Who  were  the  most  important  of  his  associates  (p.  23)  ? 

When  was  he  first  seated  in  Parliament  (p.  24),  and  what  was 
the  subject  of  his  tl maiden  speech"? 

For  how  long  was  he  prominent  in  politics?  With  what 
general  success  (p.  26) ? 

What  three  .great  subjects  was  Burke  particularly  interested 
in  during  his  political  career? 

What  was  his  general  attitude  toward  the  policies  of  George 
III? 

Summarize  Burke 's  work  on  behalf  of  the  American  colonies, 
naming  two  important  speeches  and  one  letter  which  he  wrote 
on  the  question. 

What  was  Burke 's  most  important  work  on  the  Indian  ques 
tion  (p.  27)  ?  The  immediate  result?  The  result  in  the  long 
run? 

What  was  his  attitude  toward  the  French  Kevolution  (p.  28)  ? 

What  is  the  common  estimate  of  Burke  as  an  orator  and  po 
litical  philosopher  (pp.  25,  26,  28)? 

An  interesting  estimate  of  Burke  may  be'  found  in  Gold 
smith's  "Retaliation"  (Newcomer  and  Andrews,  Twelve  Cen 
turies  of  English  Poetry  and  Prose,  p.  380). 

304 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  305 

HISTORICAL  BACKGROUND  OF  THE  SPEECH  ox  CONCILIATION 

What  error  as  to  the  causes  of  the  American  Revolution  has 
persisted  in  school  books,  but  is  corrected  in  this  edition  (p.  3)  ? 
Collect  from  the  various  parts  of  this  book  the  evidences  of  the 
editor's  fundamental  contention,  and  classify  the  evidence. 

When  did  the  ''modern  development  of  English  liberties" 
begin  (p.  11)  ?  How  was  real  popular  rule  enforced  even  under 
the  first  two  German  kings  (George  I  and  II)  ?  Did  the  cabinet 
government  then  differ  materially  from  English  cabinet  govern 
ment  now?  Specify  differences  if  you  find  them. 

What  relation  does  the  capture  of  Fort  Duquesne,  or  the 
war  of  which  it  was  an  event,  bear  to  the  struggle  against 
autocracy  (p.  10)  ? 

What  are  the  main  facts  as  to  George  Ill's  race  and  char 
acter  (pp.  14-21,  146-162)  ?  How  did  he  proceed  to  procure 
absolute  control  even  under  a  parliamentary  government? 

Why  did  England  begin  to  tax  the  colonies  in  America  (p. 
29)  ?  What  had  been  the  previous  method  of  getting  money 
from  them  ?  Note  the  use  of  these  facts  in  the  Speech  on  Con 
ciliation. 

By  whom  was  the  Stamp  Act  devised  (p.  31)  ?  What  was  its 
nature?  Why  did  the  colonies  object  to  it?  What  was  its  fate? 
After  how  long  an  attempt  to  enforce  it? 

When  did  Lord  North  come  into  power  (p.  32)  ?  What  sort 
of  person  was  he?  How  long  was  he  head  of  the  administration? 

Note  carefully  the  series  of  events  indicating  the  colonies' 
attitude  toward  the  principle  of  taxation  (p.  35). 

What  was  the  "one  simple  cause"  (p.  16)  elucidated  by 
Burke  in  his  Tlionglits  on  Hie  Cause  of  the  Present  Discontents, 
1770?  Do  you  find  in  the  extracts  from  this  pamphlet  (pp. 
218-236)  material  directly  bearing  on  the  American  Revolution? 
Answer  specifically. 

When  was  Burke 's  Speech  on  American  Taxation  (pp.  169- 
193)  delivered— the  specific  occasion  (p.  169)?  Find  examples 
of  the  difference  in  tone  between  this  speech  and  the  Speech  on 
Conciliation,  as  indicated  on  page  17. 


306 


APPENDIX 


From  a  study  of  the  Collateral  Eeadings  (particularly  pp. 
129-145  and  265-282)  what  do  you  conclude  as  to  the  feeling 
of  the  English  people  in  general  regarding  the  trouble  with  the 
American  colonies? 

What  impressions  of  Lord  Chatham,  the  elder  Pitt,  do  you  get 
from  Burke 's  comments  (p.  185)  and  from  the  extracts  from 
Pitt's  speeches  (pp.  243-255)?  What  impressions  of  Fox  (pp. 
256-264)  ? 

What,  in  the  long  run,  was  the  result  in  England  of  George 
Ill's  attempts  to  tyrannize  over  the  people  (p.  37)? 

When  and  where  was  the  Speech  on  Conciliation  delivered 
(pp.  36,  284)  ?  What  was  the  direct  occasion  for  it?  The  re 
sult  of  it?  Show  why  this  result  reflects  in  no  way  on  the 
effectiveness  of  the  speech. 

What  was  the  occasion  of  Burke 's  Letter  to  the  Sheriffs  of 
Bristol  (pp.  193-217)  ?  The  status  of  the  American  Kevolution 
at  that  time? 

DETAILS  OF  THE  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

What  do  you  find  to  be  the  purpose  of  Burke 's  introduction  ? 
Do  you  notice  any  devices  to  indicate  that  the  speech  was  un 
prepared  (par.  1)  ?  Was  Burke  really  superstitious? 

What  is  the  effect  of  the  hesitation  for  a  proper  word  at  the 
end  of  paragraph  4?  Of  the  familiar  colloquial  expressions  in 
paragraph  5? 

What  subtle  irony  do  you  find  in  paragraph  7?  Point  out 
other  examples  of  the  same  quality  later  on. 

What  great  governmental  principle  is  at  the  bottom  of  para 
graph  10? 

How  has  the  House  admitted  what  Burke,  in  paragraph  12, 
says  it  has  admitted? 

Why  is  the  population  of  the  colonies  an  argument  in  favor 
of  conciliation  (pp.  49,  50)?  The  commerce?  What  is  the 
substance  of  Burke 's  evidence  regarding  commerce? 

Is  paragraph  25  in  any  sense  a  digression?  What,  pre 
cisely,  is  its  relation  to  the  course  of  the  argument? 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  307 

Why  should  Burke  turn  again  to  specific  figures  in  paragraph 
26? 

What  is  the  argumentative  effect  of  paragraph  28? 

What  literary  qualities  do  you  find  in  paragraph  30? 

What  universal  political  principles  are  stated  in  paragraphs 
32-36? 

What  is  the  function,  as  a  paragraph,  of  paragraph  37?  Find 
similar  examples  farther  on. 

Why  do  the  references  to  the  history  of  England  in  paragraph 
39  apply  specifically  to  the  American  colonies? 

In  what  ways  is  force  secured  in  paragraph  44? 

What  is  the  purpose,  as  a  paragraph,  of  paragraph  45  ?  Show 
how  it  differs  from  paragraph  37.  Find  similar  examples 
farther  on. 

Can  you  think  of  any  other  feasible  ways  of  proceeding  be 
sides  those  mentioned  by  Burke  in  paragraph  48? 

Why  should  paragraph  52  be  set  off  as  a  paragraph? 

How  had  England  shown  the  disposition  to  impoverish  the 
colonies  mentioned  in  paragraph  53? 

What  powerful  bits  of  sarcasm  do  you  find  in  paragraphs  54, 
57,  58? 

State  in  substance  the  sound  political  wisdom  underlying 
paragraphs  60  and  61. 

What  does  Burke  gain  by  leaving  out  of  consideration  the 
right  of  taxation  (par.  67)?  To  what  feeling  is  the  appeal 
of  this  paragraph? 

Explain  in  your  own  words  the  inconsistency  which  Burke 
points  out  in  paragraphs  72-74.  On  this  matter  see  the  Speech 
on  American  Taxation  (pp.  169-193). 

Explain  all  historical  references  of  importance  in  paragraphs 
80-87. 

Consider  paragraphs  80  in  the  light  of  the  present  "  Irish 
question. '  * 

Summarize  the  points  of  similarity  between  England's  treat 
ment  of  Wales  and  of  the  American  colonies,  as  given  in  para 
graph  82. 


308  APPENDIX 

"Why  should  Burke,  in  paragraph  85,  quote  the  exact  lan 
guage  of  the  people  of  Chester? 

Do  the  questions  in  paragraph  86  indicate  anything  as  to  the 
course  of  procedure  adopted  by  Parliament  with  relation  to 
American  petitions? 

Is  paragraph  87  a  unit? 

Explain  carefully  the  actual  concession  which  Burke  proposes 
in  paragraph  91. 

What  is  the  effect  of  paragraph  92,  followed  by  resolutions 
all  but  one  embodying  mere  matters  of  fact,  couched  in  the 
language  of  previous  Parliaments? 

Name  all  the  literary  effects  you  find  prominent  in  paragraph 
95. 

What  historical  events  were  the  basis  for  the  resolution  of 
1748  (par.  101)?  That  of  1756? 

Why  should  Burke  precede  his  sixth  resolution  by  the  bit 
of  argument  contained  in  paragraph  105? 

Which  of  the  acts  mentioned  for  repeal  in  paragraph  109 
does  Burke  discuss  specifically  in  the  following  paragraphs? 
Can  you  tell  why  he  does  not  discuss  all? 

For  more  details  as  to  paragraph  113,  see  Burke 's  Letter  to 
the  Sheriffs  of  Bristol  (pp.  194,  195). 

Explain  the  resolutions  as  to  courts  (pars.  114-15). 

What  is  the  essential  point  of  paragraph  120? 

Do  you  think  Burke  really  almost  forgot  his  purpose  to  com 
ment  on  the  plan  of  Lord  North,  as  referred  to  in  paragraph 
123?  Does  he,  however,  give  sufficient  attention  to  it?  State 
clearly  all  his  points  against  it- 

How  would  Lord  North's  plan  break  the  union  of  the  colo 
nies  (par.  131)  ? 

Note  the  effective  antithesis  of  paragraph  132. 

Explain  the  figure  at  the  end  of  paragraph  133. 

What  is  the  nature  and  purpose  of  Burke 's  concluding  ap 
peal?  Is  it  necessary  to  the  argument? 

What  was  the  "ideal  of  democracy"  expressed  by  Burke 
(p.  6),  and  how  does  this  speech  bring  it  out? 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  399 

THEME  SUBJECTS 

1.  Burke 's  life  (pp.  22-29).     See  also  reference  works  and 
biographies. 

2.  Burke 's  literary  friends    (p.  23;    cf.  Boswell's  Life  of 
Johnson,  Irving 's  Oliver  Goldsmith,  etc.). 

3.  Burke 's  work  in  behalf  of  the  American  colonies. 

4.  Burke  and  Indian  affairs  (cf.    Macaulay's  Warren  Hast 
ings)  . 

5.  Burke  and  the  French  Revolution    (p.  28). 

6.  Summary  of  the  historical  events  leading  up  to  the  Speech 
on  Conciliation. 

7.  The  character  and  aims  of  George  III   (pp.  14-21,  146- 
162). 

8.  English  opinion  in  relation  to  the  American  colonies  (pp. 
129-145,  248-282). 

9.  Explanation  of  the  measures  Burke  wished  repealed. 

10.  Arguments  on  the  measures  separately. 

11.  The  growth  of  the  American  colonies  (pp.  49-56).     (Con 
trast  the  America  Burke  thought  so  wonderful  with  America 
today.) 

12.  The  causes  of  the  American  love  of  freedom  (pp.  60  ff.). 
Can  additions  be  made  to  Burke  's  list  ? 

13.  Historical  precedents  in  favor  of  conciliation  (pp.  89  ff.). 

14.  Parallels  between  the  case  of  Wales  and  that  of  America 
'(pp.  91  ff.). 

15.  Characteristics  of  Burke 's  choice  of  words. 

16.  Sarcasm  in  this  speech.     (Is  it  effective?    Cite  examples.) 

17.  Burke 's  principles  of  government  (pp.  46,  59  ff.,  124  ff., 
etc.). 

18.  Burke 's  character  as  indicated  by  this  speech. 

19.  The  paragraph  structure  of  this  speech. 

20.  How  the  speech  was  received  and  what  it  accomplished. 
(Would  •&  similar  speech  be  effective  if  delivered  in  our  United 
States  House  of  Representatives,  in  the  face  of  a  hostile  ma 
jority?) 


310          BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 

SELECTIONS  FOE  CLASS  EEADING 

1.  Burke 's  reasons  for  speaking   (pp.  41-46). 

2.  The  growth  of  America  (pp.  53-55,  57-58). 

3.  The  American  love  of  freedom   (pp.  60-68). 

4.  Possible  ways  of  dealing  with  the  colonies  (pp.  72-80). 

5.  Burke 's  general  proposition   (pp.  81-84). 

6.  Precedents  for  conciliation  (pp.  89-95). 

7.  The  first  two  resolutions  (pp.  98-101). 

8.  Objections  to  Lord  North's  plan  (pp.  115-121). 

9.  Conclusion  (pp.  124-127). 

10.  English  views  of  the  American  Kevolution  (pp.  129-132). 

11.  How   officers   viewed  the   service   against  America    (pp. 
140-144). 

12.  How  George  III  built  up  his  power  (pp.  149-154). 

13.  Lecky's  characterization  of  George  III  (pp.  3J56-161). 

14.  The  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  (pp.  183-186). 

15.  Burke 's  view  of  taxation  (pp.  189-193). 

16.  Evil  results  of  the  American  war  (pp.  197-202). 

17.  The  Earl  of  Chatham's  view  (pp.  244-249). 


INDEX 


Numbers  refer  to  pages.  Numbers  5-39  refer  to  Preface 
and  Introduction,  41-127  to  the  text  of  the  Speech,  129-282  to 
the  Collateral  Readings,  283-303  to  the  Notes. 


Abeunt  studia,  67,  291 
Abrogated   charter    of   Mass., 

35,  70,  108,  109,  197,  293 
Absolute  power,  123 
Abstract  extent,  95,  297 
Abstract     right,     see    Eights, 

Theories 
Act   of   Henry  Till,   80,   see 

Trials  in  England 
Act    of    navigation,    85,    111, 

125,  192 

Ada  parentum,  54,  289 
Addresses  to  King,  47,  80,  194, 

243,  288,  294 

Admiralty  courts,  110,  111,  300 
Admit  to  an  interest,  84,  295, 

296,  297 

Advantage,  one  great,  47,  288 
Adventitious,  45,  288 
African  trade,  52,  58,  289 
Agents'  colony,  47,  118,  288 
Agriculture,  56-57 
Algiers,  68 
America,  Burke 's  references  to 

in  the  Conciliation,  42,  43, 

47,  49,  52,  53,  55,  59,  60,  62 
American    Taxation,    excerpts 


169-193;    references  to,    17, 

34,  296,  298,  303 
Anarchy,  71,  95,  293 
Angola,   77 
Annual  Eegister,  23 
Appalachian,  73 
Arabia,  67 
Aristotle,  114 
Armada,  296 
Assemblies,  colonial,  63,  66,  70, 

71,  76,  78,  98,  102-106,  110, 

122,  209,  210,  291,  299 
Auction,  47,  116,  117,  118,  120 
Augur,    67,    292 
Auspicate,  302 
Austerity,  41,  285 
Austria,    29 
Awful,  42,  286 

Bank,    122 
Bar,  51,  57 
Barre,  31,  241,  279 
Bastille,  28 

Bathurst,  54,  289,  290,  303 
Bengal,  124 
Bibliography,  303 
Blackstone,  66,  291 


311 


312 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 


Blue  ribbon,  33,  47 

Board  of  Trade,  Burke 's 
speech  on,  242 

Boston,  33,  66,  243,  251 ;  Mas 
sacre,  35;  Port  Bill,  35,  108, 
120,  197;  see  Tea  Party 

Bourbon,  10 

Brazil,  58 

British,  see  Empire,  Freedom, 
Privileges,  Constitution 

Brunswick,  54,  220,  223 

Brusa,  68 

Builders  of  Democracy,  20 

Burgoyne,  21;  Burke 's  speech 
on  defeat,  237-242 

Burke,  sketches  of  life,  22-29, 
31,  146,  301 ;  selections,  169- 
236;  power  of  oratory,  25, 
237-242;  see  names  of  his 
speeches  and  essays 

Burney,  24 

Bute,  15,  30,  162-163,  165, 
167,  230,  231,  303 

Cabal     (court    faction),    222, 

•224,  226-228 
Cabinet,  double,  229 
Camden,  276,  295 
Canada,  10,  29 
Cape  Breton,  103 
Capital,  47,  288 
Carolinas,  35,  65,  77,  118 
Catholics,  22,  28,  63,  75,  161 
Cause,  109,  299 
Chair,  285,  see  Norton 
Charter   of   Mass.,    see   Abro 
gated 


Chatham,  speeches  quoted,  243- 
255;  referred  to,  10,  11,  13, 
14,16/22,27,30,31,32,112, 
131,  142,  164,  183,  223,  286, 
295,  300,  303 

Chester,  93-95,  100,  111,  112, 

115,  297,  300 
Chicane,  61,  291 

Church  of  England,  64,  76 
Civil  War,  American,  38 
Coke,   78,   294 
Coercion,  35,  41,  81,  130,  280, 

290,  see  Eestraint 
1 '  Colonies    will    go    further, ' ' 

85,  87,  112,    113,  181,  188, 

296 
Colonies,     see     America,     see 

names  of  colonies 
Commerce,  50-56 
Commercial  regulations,  296 
Commons   described,    15,    129- 

130,     148,     152,     284-285; 

Burke    on   nature    of,    234- 

236;  Burke 's  references  to, 

41,  43,  51,  62,  85,  89,  104, 

116,  117,  122 
Competence  of  assemblies,  102, 

29£ 

Complexions,  59,  290 
Composition,  118,  301 
Compounding,  123,  301 
Compromise  and  barter,  113 
Comus,  97,  297 
Concession       from       superior 

power,  48,  253 


INDEX 


313 


Conciliation,  35,  46,  47,  48, 
59,  81,  88,  109,  121,  246,  251, 
270 

Conde,  252 

Confidence,  46,  see  Unsuspect 
ing 

Congress,  24,  66,  111,  252,  288 

Connecticut,  103,  109 

Considerations  three,  49,  50, 
54,  60,  290,  293 

Constitution,  21,  29,  62,  88, 
89,  99,  114,  116,  124-126, 
215,  249,  250,  290 

Contingent  (adj.),  121,  301; 
(noun),  117,  300 

Conway,  142,  275,  286,  287 

Cords  of  a  man,  114,  300 

Corn,  57,  179 

Cornwall,  166,  184 

Cornwallis,  37 

County  palatine,  93 

Courts  in  America,  110,  111 

Crimea,  68 

Criminal,  treating  colonies  as, 
77-81 

Davenant,  51 
Davies,  89 
Davis'  Straits,  57 
Debt,  English  public,  122,  301 
Decent  maintenance,  111,  300 
De  jure,  112,  300 
Difficulties  great,  118-120,  301 
Disobedient,  67,  292 
Dissidence  of  dissent,  64 
Distance  of    colonies,    67,    77, 
96,  97,  101,  102,  118,  298 


Distinguished  person  (Glover), 

51,  289 
Dunmore,  70 
Dunning,  19,  278,  303 
Duquesne,  9,  10 
Durham,  96,  100,  112,  115 

Ease  would  retract,  123 

East  India  Company,  124,  181 

Economical  Eeform,  241 

Education,  66,  76,  291 

Edward  I,  91 

Effingham,  143,  272 

Egypt,  67 

Elizabeth,  90 

Emanation,  69,  293 

Empire,  defined,  78;  Ameri 
can,  127;  British,  27,  42,  45, 
46,  55,  78,  83,  88,  114,  115, 
120,  121,  125,  127,  209;  see 
Unity 

Envy,  57,  290 

Experience,  116,  121 ;  see  The 
ories 

Experimentum,  116,  300 

Exquisite,  85,  295 

Extent,  120,  301 

Ex  vi  termini,  79,  294 

Falkland  Island,  57,  290 
Financi-ers,  85,  121,  295 
First  had  the  honor  of  a  seat, 

42,  43 ;  see  Session 
Fisheries,  57,  74,  92,  119,  290 
Fiske,  6,  303 
Floor,  66,  291 


314 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 


Fomented,  46,  288 

For  the  ministry,  101;  see 
Hillsborough 

Force,  59-60,  204 

Force  sent  to  America,  81 

Foreign  mercenaries,  see  Ger 
man 

Four  examples,  89,  296 

Fox,  Charles  J.,  extracts  from 
speeches,  256-265;  referred 
to,  18,  19.  139,  147,  241, 
270,  303 

Fox,  Henry,  165,  167 

Frailty,  41,  286 

France,  29,  149,  199 

Franklin,  268,  294 

Frederick  the  Great,  133 

Freedom  (a  few  references  to 
Liberty,  Eights),  5,  7,10,  14, 
15,  20,  27,  30,  36,  37,  60,  65, 
66,  71,  75,  82,  84,  89,  93, 
114,  115,  123,  124-127,  149, 
207,  215,  216,  291,  293,  301 

French  and  Indian  War,  10 

Gage,  66,  243,  245,  252 

Gambling,  287;  see  Bank, 
Table,  Hand,  Game 

Game,  44 

Garter,  33 

Gaspee,  35 

Gates,  29 

George  I,  13 

George  II,  13,  101,  104,  225 

George  III,  11,  13-21,  30-34, 
36,  37,  54,  102,  110,  130- 
134,  137,  147-155,  156-168, 


172,  196,  254,  288,  290,  298, 

300,  301,  303 
German,   Germany,   5,   11,   12, 

13,  14,  20,  33,  120,  156,  199, 

200,  202,  206,  207,  254,  275, 

280,  282,  290,  297,  298,  299 
Gibbon  15,  146,  242 
Giving  up  the  colonies,  72,  293 
Glover,  51,  289 

Good  for  us  to  be  here,  54,  289 
Gothic,  65 
Grand  Penal  Bill,  18,  41,  47, 

286 
Grants  of  land,  73 ;  of  money, 

91,  93,  95,  98,  102-107,  122, 

210,  295 
Green,  6,  303 
Greenlaw,  20 

Grenville,  30,  31,  105,  112,  303 
Guinea,  77 

Halifax,  Earl,  186,  187 

Hampden,  291 

Hand,  44,  287 

Hanover,  12,  14 

Hapsburg,  10 

Harrington,  97 

Hartley,  268 

Hastings,  25,  27,  284 

Henry  III,  91 

Henry  VIII,  93,  108,  110;  see 
Trials  in  England 

House,  see  Commons,  Parlia 
ment 

High,  103,  299 

Hillsborough,  34,  101;  letter 
of,  172-178;  181,  298,  302 


INDEX 


315 


Holland,  58 
Horace,  296,  298 
Howe,  277 
Hudson's  Bay,  57 
Hume,  132 
Humors,  70,  293 

Illation,  113,  300 
Impeachable  offenses,  102 
Imports  to  England,  56 
Imposition,  98,   106,  118,  297 
Incongruous  mixture,  41,  286; 

see  Kestraint 
Incubus,  92 
India,  27,  28,  29,  124 
Indian  -wars,  103 
Indictment    of   whole    people, 

78,  93,  294 
Influence,  219 
Initiated,  302 
Inquisition,  76 
Ireland,  89,  115,  122,  160,  250, 

296 

Irish  pensioners,  154,  296 
Irnham,  19 
Isle  of  Man,  179 

Jealous,  61,  290 
Jewel  of  his  soul,  113 
Johnson,  Dr.,  23 
Johnatone,  Gov.,   19,  25,  239, 

265 

Judge,  acting  as,  79 
Judges  in  America,  110,  111 
Judicature,  110,  299 
Junto,  232 


King,  see  George  III 

King's  men  (some  references 
are  to  king's  friends,  Swiss 
of  state,  etc.),  4,  17,  19,  32, 
130,  162,  166,  182,  183,  187, 
220,  229,  232,  233,  234,  285, 
288,  289,  294,  297,  301 

Kurdistan,  68 

Labyrinth,  119,  201 

Land  Tax  Act,  126,  302 

Law,  66,  76,  291 

Lecky,  quoted,  156-168;  re 
ferred  to,  4,  20,  303 

Letter  to  the  Sheriffs  of  Bris 
tol,  extracts,  193-217;  re 
ferred  to,  300,  303 

Levis,  Due  de,  25 

Lexington,  11,  22,  36 

Liberty,  see  Spirit  of  Liberty, 
Freedom 

Lincoln,  26 

Links  of  iron,  124 

Litigious,  66,  291 

Lords  Marchers,  91,  296  . 

Luttrell,   18,  266 

Mace,  47,  284,  288 

Magna  Charta,  89 

Magnanimity,  4,  22,  127 

Majesty,  102 

Manchester,  Duke  of,  19 

Manners  in  South,  68 

Manufactures,  30,  117,  119, 
178 

Marine  enterprises,  see  Fish 
eries 


316 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 


Maryland,  118 
Massachusetts,  35,  71,  80,  103, 

108,  109,  187,  188;   charter 

of,  see  Abrogated 
Menaces,  76,  288 
Mercenaries,  see  German 
Mercurial,  67,  292 
Merely,  63 
Metaphysical,    114,    189,    208, 

244,  300 ;  see  Theories 
Minima,  50,  289 
Ministry  defined,  12;  North's 

ministry,  "18,   44,    101,    102, 

135,  136,  138,  145,  244,  247, 

251,  259,  263,  287,  292,  298 
Monopolists,  73 
Monsters,  69,  292 
Moral,  67,  77,  114,  292 
More,  97 
Mr.  Speaker,  54,  285 ;  se*  ^r- 

ton 

Murder,  109,  299 
Mutiny  Bill,  126 

Nebuchadnezzar,  18 

Neglect  salutary,  58,  211 

Negroes,  49,  77 

Newcastle,  13, 15,  164-165,  223 

Newfoundland,  286,  290 

New   Hampshire,   103 

New  York,  32 

Nice,  79,  294 

Noble  lord  in  the  blue  ribbon, 
47 ;  see  North ;  see  Blue  rib 
bon 

Non  meus,  99 


North,  18-21,  32-37,  47,  48, 
85,  86,  101,  116,  120,  139, 
148,  151-153,  175,  178,  192, 
193,  239,  241,  260,  263,  270, 
288,  289,  294,  295,  302,  303 

Norton,  18,  256,  285,  303 

Objections,  to  force,  59-60 ;  to 

stopping  grants  of  land,  73; 

to  Burke 's  resolutions,  111- 

115;     to     North's    project, 

116-120 
Observations   on   the   Present 

State  of  the  Nation,  298 
Occasional,  50,  289 
Oceana,  97 
Operose,  69,  293 
Opinions  allowed,  established, 

71,   74,  190,  208,  211,  218, 

292 
Opposition,  denned,  13 ;  "  us, " 

44,  284,  287 

Opposuit  natura,  97,  297 
Outcry,  118,  301 
Outline  of  Conciliation,  283 

Pamphlet  (Tucker's),  86,  296 
Paradise  Lost,  301 
Parties  in  America,  123 
Parliament      ( Burke 's     refer 
ences  to),  43,  48,  72,  82,  84, 
89,  91,  92,  95,  100,  102,  104, 
111,   112,  117,  118 
Parliamentary     History,     ex 
tracts,  265-282;  referred  to, 
17,  303 
Partial,  108,  299 


INDEX 


317 


Peace,  46,  48,  116,  120 

Penal  laws,  81,  96;  in  Wales, 
92;  see  Grand  Penal  Bill, 
Repeal  of  Penal  Acts 

Pennsylvania,   56 

Pensioners,  Irish,  91,  296 

Peroration,  124-127,  283,  301 

Philip  II,  88,  296 

Pitt,  the  elder,  see  Chatham; 
the  younger,  22,  37 

Platform,  44 

Plato,  97 

Poles,  65 

Polity,  82,  295 

Politics,  69,  292 

Popular,  63,  69,  291 

Population,  49,  72-74,  96 

Posita  luditur,  122,  301 

Prime  minister,  12 

Privileges,  79,  127;  see  Free 
dom 

Profane,  126,  302 

Project  (North's),  35,  47,  48, 
116,  288 

Protestants,  63,  291 

Pruriency,  46,  288 

Prussia,  3,  5,  29,  125 

Public  tribunal,  43,  287 

Putnam,  29 

Quakers,  22 
Quebec,  29,  31 
Questions,  two  capital,  48 
Quod  felix,  127,  302 

Radical,  72,  293 
Raleigh,  78,  294 


Ransom,  116,  123;  see  Auction 
Rebellion  in  America,  35,  43, 

79,    80,    96,    195,    206,   216, 

265,  271,  287 
Rebellion,  "  Great, "  11 
Reconciliation,  see  Conciliation 
Refined  policy,  46,  288 
Refractory  colonies,  118 
Refusal,  121 

Religion,  63,  75,  90,   95,  208 
Repeal  of  penal  acts,  107-111, 

254,  299 
Representation,  62,  63,  93,  94, 

96,  97,  98-101,  111,  291,  295, 

297,  298 

Republic,  97,  297 
Requisition,  106 
Resolutions,    Burke 's,    98-111, 

298 

Restraint,  29,  41,  74,  286 
Returning  officer,  109,  299 
Revenue    laws,    86,    121,    127, 

178,  296 

Revenue  by  grant,  by  imposi 
tion,    106;     see    Grants    of 

Money,  Imposition 
Revolution,  American,  36,  37, 

38;      see      extracts      from 

Trevelyan,     129-145,    Fox's 

speeches,  Letter  to  Sheriffs 
Revolution,  English,  11,  12,  90, 

225 

Revolution,  French,  28,  37 
Rhode  Island,  103,  109 
Rice,  57 
Richard  II,  94 
Richmond,  Duke  of,   133,  277 


318 


BURKE 'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 


Bights,  abstract,  80,  295;  see 
Theories;  English,  see  Free 
dom 

Eobinson,  151-153 

Kockingham,  24,  31,  166,  183, 
230,  273 

Rodman,  38 

Eoman  charity,  57,  290 

Run  the  longitude,  58,  290 

•St.  Stephen's,  284 

Sandwich,  141,  147,  149 

Serbonian  bog,  83 

Serpent,  57,  290 

Session,  Burke  'a  first,  212,  213, 

182-185 
Session,    "the   present,"    43, 

287 

Seven  Years'  War,  10,  13,  29 
Simplicity,  46 
Simul  alba,  93,  296 
Sir,  285;  see  Norton 
Sixth  of  George  II,  101,  298 
Slavery,    arguing    or    forcing 

Americans  into,  75,  79,  125, 

190,  245 
Slaves,  negro,  in  America,  49, 

52,  65,  76,  77,  289 
Slaves,  make  haughty,  114,  300 
Smyrna,   68 
Sophistry,  114 
Spain,  68,  88,   125,  149,  254, 

296 

Spare  it  altogether,  121,  301 
Speed,  123,  301 
Spirit  of  liberty,  10,  58,   61, 

68,  72,  77,  81 


Spoliatis  arma,  75,  294 
Stamp  Act,  24,  31,  101,  182- 

191,  211,  248,  286,  288,  295 
State,  105,  299 
Stuarts,  11,  12,  95,  150,  156, 

166,  284 

Sublime  and  Beautiful,  22 
Submission,  47,   70,  271,  275, 

286,  288,  295 
Subsidies,  99,  103 
Sultan,  68 

Superstition,  41,  95,  286 
Sursum  corda,  127,  302 

Table,  123 
Tartars,  English,  73 
Taxable  objects,  124,  301 
Taxation,    29-32,    35,    36,    82, 

84-87,    94,   95,   98-101,   104- 

107,   112-114,    117-120,   124, 

218,  244,  249,  291,  295,  297, 

299 
Taxation     of    Americans    by 

themselves,    105,    124,    250, 

299 

Taxation  by  grant,  98,  297     <] 
Taxation  a  test  of  liberty,  61- 

62 

Taxation  in  Ireland,  90 
Tea,  32,  34,  177 
Tea  Party,  35,'  294 
Temper  and  character,  60-68 
Temple  of  Peace,  Concord,  98, 

100,  111,  125,  127,  302 
Theories,   Burke 's  dislike  for 

mere,  27,  45,  49,  60,  80,  88, 


INDEX 


319 


97,  100,  107,  113,  116,  189, 
288,  295;  see  Metaphysical 

Thoughts  on  the  Cause  of  the 
Present  Discontents,  ex 
tracts,  218-236;  referred  to, 
6,  16,  303 

Tobacco,  119,  301 

Touched  and  grieved,  94,  99, 
100,  298 

Townshend,  32,  34,  163,  303 

Trade,  see  Commerce 

Trade  laws,  29,  85-87,  250,  293 

Traitors,  see  Trials  in  England 

Treason,  see  Trials  in  England 

Trevelyan,  extracts,  129-155, 
237-242;  cited,  303 

Trials  for  treason  in  England, 
33,  92,  108,  109,  120,  171, 
194 

Truck  and  huckster,  68,  292 

Tucker,  293,  296 

Turk,  67 

Understood  principle,  84,  295, 

297 
Unity    of    Empire,    115,    120, 

125,  300 


Unsuspecting  confidence,  3,  11, 
46,  84,  172,  178,  212,  213, 
288 

Utopia,  97 

Virginia,  65,  76,  77,  118,  119, 

187 
Virtually  represented,  96 

Wales,  91-93,  115,  296 
Walpole,  Horace,  25,  131,  146, 

239 
Walpole,   Robert,    12,    13,    15, 

16,  30 

Washington,  9,  26,  28,  29 
Webster,  28 
Wedderburn,  146,  303 
West  Indian,  52 
Westminster,  284 
Wilkes,  John,  28 
Wilkes,  Lord  Mayor,  274 
Will  not  miscall,  43,  287 
WTilliam  of  Orange,  12 
Wind  of  doctrine,  42 
Winged  ministers,  67,  292 
Worse  qualified,  44 
Worthy  member,  43,  169,  287 

Ye  gods,  annihilate,  77 


I  M 


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